Fault tolerant, self repairing transputer arrays

The transputer is a device that has unique features making it suitable for both computationally intensive and fault tolerant applications. A particularly important features is that transputers have been designed as components of multi-processor systems. To operate in space, devices need to be resistant to radiation effects. Gamma particles have a cumulative effect which causes the power consumption of a device to increase with time and ultimately causes the device to fail. A second effect due to high energy particles causes bistable logic elements to change state. The latter effect does not cause any permanent damage and is referred to as a Single Event Upset (SEU). Initial work carried out by Smith Associates, at ESTEC, made a radiation assessment of the INMOS IMS T414BG transputers. Initial findings suggest that the transputer could potentially be used in space but that SEUs will occur at worst at a rate of one per day