The RAD750 is a radiation-hardened single-board computer manufactured by BAE Systems Electronics, Intelligence & Support. The RAD750 was released in 2001, with the first units launched into space in 2005.

Technology

The CPU has 10.4 million transistors, an order of magnitude more than the RAD6000 (which had 1.1 million). Customer program requirements and quantities, however, greatly affect the final unit costs.

The RAD750 is based on the PowerPC 750. Its packaging and logic functions are completely compatible with the PowerPC 7xx family.

Deployment

In 2010, it was reported that there were over 150 RAD750s used in a variety of spacecraft. on each of the STEREO spacecraft, launched 15 October 2006.

  • WorldView-1 satellite, launched 18 September 2007, has two RAD750s.
  • Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, formerly GLAST, launched 11 June 2008.
  • Kepler space telescope, launched in March 2009.
  • Solar Dynamics Observatory, launched 11 February 2010.
  • Juno spacecraft, launched 5 August 2011.
  • Curiosity rover, launched 26 November 2011.
  • Van Allen Probes, launched on 30 August 2012.
  • InSight, launched on 5 May 2018.
  • Perseverance rover, launched 30 July 2020.
  • James Webb Space Telescope, launched 25 December 2021, uses one RAD750 clocked at 118 MHz.
  • Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory

References

  • Radiation-Hardened Processors Products from BAE Systems
  • BAE Systems’ Radiation-hardened electronics product guide (PDF), from BAE Systems
  • BAE Systems RAD750 processor JTAG Emulator from Corelis.com
  • The CPUs of Spacecraft Computers in Space
  • NASA’s latest Mars rover has the same processor as an iMac from 1998