Cobham's products and services contributed to the recent deployment of NASA's Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS). CYGNSS consists of eight Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) micro-satellites and seeks to improve weather prediction by studying the interaction between ocean surface properties, moist atmospheric thermodynamics, radiation, and convective dynamics as it relates to Tropical Cyclones. The NASA team consists of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), University of Michigan, Surrey Satellite Technology, and Sierra Nevada Corporation.
The Cobham Gaisler's GR712RC LEON3 Microprocessor was selected by SwRI as the main computer for each of the CYGNSS satellites while Cobham Gaisler's LEON3 processor IP core was also used in the CYGNSS Delay Doppler Mapping Instrument (DDMI) payload as part of Surrey Satellite Technology's Space GNSS Receiver-Remote Sensing Instrument (SGR-ReSI). Cobham Semiconductor Solutions' RadHard Memory products and Circuit Card Assembly services also contributed to the CYGNSS mission.
The GR712RC enables a high level of system integration by providing a multitude of interfaces. This, combined with the high computational power of the two processor cores, makes it an attractive system-on-chip device with low power consumption that is easy to integrate in spacecraft platform and payload. The LEON3 processor IP soft core, meanwhile, offers the possibility to integrate the same processor into custom designed microelectronics, while maintaining the compatibility with the GR712RC, offering great savings in software infrastructure and development time.
