11–12 Dec 2013
ESTEC
UTC timezone

Platform design vs. modular design: Siemens' "ProUST-FE" as a case study

12 Dec 2013, 09:00
50m
Newton 2 (ESTEC)

Newton 2

ESTEC

Speaker

Mr Alfred Fuchs (Siemens)

Description

Acitvity: GSTP TO:Alfred Fuchs Summary: A highly reconfigurable SCOE-device is presented, which can substitute many COTS devices and leads to a high-performance, compact EGSE. Mission experiences are discussed. An EGSE, be it an Instrument-EGSE, a Power-SCOE or a Simulation Front-End, tends to consist of ca. a dozen different interface types in varying combinations. These are discrete analog and digital ones and serial interfaces such as MIL-1553 and SpaceWire. Test modules use to be built around a common bus standard, be it proprietary or industry-standard such as venerable VME or PXI. Given that the interfaces in satellite platforms are standardized to a high extent it looks natural to reduce the diversity of COTS-equipment and define a single scalable, generic and reconfigurable platform which covers the EGSE-needs with an optimized “all-in-one”-approach. Technical progress in microelectronics, particularly FPGA and FPAA-technology increasingly favors a design paradigm where products show a versatility unseen before. Following the “ProUST” product, which is a platform centered around power protection, Siemens has developed a ProUST-FrontEnd device, which merges serial digital interfaces with an array of multi-purpose analog/power circuits. Additionally it optimizes I/O-timing using PCI-Express-over-cable and fine-tuned logic. Access times of 0.6 μs for writes and 2 μs for reads have been achieved, which are particularly valuable in the RT-context of HW-in-the-loop simulations. At the heart of the innovation is the insight that the mental model, which draws a clear boundary between HW and SW, does not reflect reality any more. Instead flexible technologies allow tailoring a unified EGSE element to diverse usage scenarios. Reconfigurability not least has several system-level benefits: - Excellent self-test capabilities - A reduced spare set - Low risk of obsolescence - Openness for late changes or, on the contrary, early procurement before perfect knowledge of S/C-implementation and EGSE needs. The presentation outlines the product concept and discusses experiences from several missions.

Presentation materials