DAHLIA met its target to develop an innovative real-time System-on-Chip for space applications where mixed-criticalities between co-running applications are guaranteed and where resources are allocated in time and space to the running applications. Overall, the main novelties of the project are:
1. European None Dependence, achieved through the use of European semiconductor technology and European IP technologies. The Consortium is made of key technology industrial partners.
2. Combination of a Very High Performance microprocessor, achieving state-of-the-art real-time performances based on European 28nm FDSOI with multicore ARM processor for real time applications and a very large embedded FPGA device for flexibility support. The chip was designed for the complete platform with 28 nm FDSOI technology offering outstanding intrinsic radiation robustness.
3. A common definition of the SoC between the main actors of the European Space Industry, with the largest scope of space applications, optimised development costs and increased competitiveness of the European Space Industry. DAHLIA System-on-Chip contains the following main features:
• 4 x ARM Cortex-R52 with Debug & Trace
• SoC Services such as Clock & Reset management, Timers & Watchdog, Temperature & Voltage sensors, Secure Boot
• CCSDS On Board Time
• On-Chip Memories all protected by ECC
• External Memory interface supporting Non Volatile (Flash) and Volatile (DDR) memories with ECC
• Multi-channel DMA controller
• CCSDS TM & TC
• GNSS
• Wide range of communication links: SpW, 1553, UART, CAN, SPI, HSSL…
• Embedded FPGA for flexibility
4. Real-time support with the new ARM Cortex-R52 processors, to cope with the mixed-criticalities of the co-running applications. The Cortex-R Series have been developed by ARM to offer performance for real-time applications. Within the Cortex-R family, the Cortex-R52 represents ARM’s most advanced processor in term of performances and safety.
5. The usage of the naturally immune to latchup STMicroelectronics 28nm FDSOI technology, to implement the High performance Microprocessor
DAHLIA developed a Very High Performance microprocessor System on Chip (SoC) based on STMicroelectonics European 28nm FDSOI technology with multi-core ARM processors for real-time applications, eFPGA for flexibility and key European IPs, enabling faster and cost-efficient development of products for multiple space application domains.
The performance is 20 to 40 times the performance of the existing SoC for space. This performance level, combined with a large set of integrated peripherals including dedicated on-chip functions for GNSS, TM and TC support, will enable key space applications to be executed within the same microprocessor significantly reducing cost and mass and boosting competitiveness of future European space equipments.
With the highest cumulative number of European satellites and electronics equipments successfully operating in orbit, Airbus Defense and Space and Thales Alenia Space represent together the indisputable best positioned companies in Europe to ensure the maximum relevance of the DAHLIA SoC for its future use by the whole European Space community.
Beyond Space applications, the adoption of the ARM processor will enable the convergence with terrestrial applications benefiting from the strong ARM ecosystem while the new SoC is ensuring European strategic non dependence for the most critical component on board.
As a conclusion, Dahlia has allowed to improve the availability of building blocks that will benefit any future Integrated Avionics based on NG-Ultra, with the coverage of both GNSS and OBC use cases completed by Software benchmarks.
