Recently, Lin Baojun, chief designer of the Beidou-3 system satellite, said at a public event that the core devices of the Beidou-3 satellite include the domestic Loongson CPU, domestic FPGAs, domestic ASICs, and microwave devices with loads.
Pictured: Beidou satellite team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lin Baojun has been the chief designer of the Beidou-3 satellite since 2011, comprehensively presided over the development of navigation satellites, and led the team to overcome dozens of core key technologies.
Lin Baojun recalled that at that time, when doing the Beidou satellite, the satellite was a few tons in weight at the beginning, and the best devices in the world were used.
Pictured: Lin Baojun, chief division of Beidou No. 3
At the same time, the "heart" of the Beidou-3 satellite uses the domestic Loongson CPU (that is, the Loongson 3A anti-irradiation type), and also uses domestic FPGAs, ASICs and microwave devices, etc., the core devices achieve 100% independent control, completely reversing the situation that the key components of the satellite rely on imports and are subject to people.
According to the chip master, as of 2020, there are 10 Beidou navigation satellites equipped with Loongson 3 CPU, and at the same time, domestic Flash and power amplifiers and other devices have entered the satellite, and the specific suppliers are unknown.
Figure: Loongson 1A CPU of the same generation as Loongson 1E/1F
In fact, as early as 2015, Lin Baojun used the Loongson CPU for the first time on the satellite, and it was used twice - Loongson 1E and Loongson 1F anti-irradiation processor.
According to the Beidou satellite researchers, there are 3 black boxes called "stand-alone" on the new generation of Beidou satellites, each with about 4 400 pages of 32-open books stacked up so large. In the two black boxes, each contains 2 Loongson 1E chips and 4 Loongson 1F chips.
Loongson 1E is responsible for routine calculations, and Loongson 1F completes data acquisition, switch control, communication and other processing functions. Although the performance of loongson 1 family using 180nm CMOS process and 4 million transistors lags behind the level of aerospace powers, compared with the chips that can be bought internationally at that time, the performance of Loongson 1E and Loongson 1F is still better, and the processing power and reliability can be equalized.
Pictured: ATMEL aerospace-grade chip AT697F
In addition, at that time, the price of Loongson 1E and Loongson 1F was only a few tens of thousands of yuan, and the West was willing to sell to China's aerospace-grade chips, such as the American ATMEL AT697F with a performance of 100 MIPS, which cost 200,000 to 300,000 yuan a piece, and the price of better performance was as high as millions of yuan.
The most critical thing is that the emergence of Loongson 1E/1F has made the domestic CPU have a strong anti-irradiation ability for the first time.
Figure: Description of the parameters of loongson 1F
Cosmic radiation, geomagnetic capture radiation, solar particles and other kinds of radiation are the biggest environmental "threats" faced by processors on satellites. The total dose effect of radiation will make the performance of the chip continue to decline until it is broken, and the high-energy particles hit the chip will directly damage the internal process of the chip, so that the current will suddenly increase, and eventually lead to the chip burning.
Previously, most of the components used in China's aerospace industry had poor anti-irradiation ability, coupled with the limitations of the international embargo, the performance of the processor that could be bought was limited. Because of this, the requirements for the irradiance resistance of components have become a national strategic demand.
From the high-priced purchase of imported chips to the heavens of Loongson and more core devices, China's breakthrough era in the field of aerospace-grade chips has officially arrived.