A minimalist hardware architecture for using commercial microcontrollers in space

Microcontrollers provide very dense functionality for embedded applications ranging from telephones to automobiles. The acceptance of these devices for space applications has been hindered by their manufacture which often uses multiple semiconductor fabrication techniques and thereby compromises radiation tolerance. If such concerns could be mitigated, microcontrollers would provide substantial increase in performance for builders of spacecraft electronics. This paper presents hardware considerations for using commercial microcontrollers in space applications. The motivations for starting with commercial devices associated with their use are advantages of software versus hardware voting schemes to mitigate single-event effects are discussed. Interprocess communications approaches and schemes for improving I/O robustness are presented