When the satellite opens computer

As an entrepreneur in the field of satellite, I deeply feel that in the past two years, the performance and computing power of satellites have developed rapidly. In January 2020, we successfully developed and launched the most powerful low -orbit broadband communication satellite in China -Galaxy Aerospace Star. This satellite indicator was a leading domestic leading at that time. The bus bandwidth is 1.28Gbps. The single -star CPU of the 02 batch of satellites in the Galaxy Aerospace, which was successfully launched in November 2021, has been upgraded to 1.2GHz in November 2021, and the memory is increased to 8GB, and the bus bandwidth exceeds 2.5Gbps. Compared with the important indicators of these two generations of satellites, it can be found that the iteration cycle of our important parameters of satellites is basically in line with Moore's Law.

For a long time in the past, satellites seem to be a slowly upgraded scientific research product. So why, the performance improvement of satellites in the past two years has suddenly accelerated? This is because with the development of technology and the bringing new ideas for commercial aerospace, satellites are entering the new era from the "old era", entering the same period as the law of Moore's law like ground computers. The cycle is unprecedented, which brings new opportunities for the development of the entire empty information industry.

The core key to satellites on the development cycle of Moore's Law is the rapid improvement of satellite computing power. Among them, the Satellite Management Unit of the platform and the Payload System Process Unit will be used as an example of SMU as an example. Simple explanation.

The satellite management unit SMU we often say is also called a satellite platform computer. Its role is to control the satellite in space through continuous receiving and issuing instructions. It is the "commander" of the satellite platform and the sub -systems of the satellite platform and load that can coordinate and operate. Essence Today, satellite management units have developed into a highly digital and integrated star -load computer.

In the past, the iterative cycle of satellites was generally 5 to 10 years, because satellites have long been scientific research products that are regarded as not costing costs, which represent the national cutting -edge scientific and technological strength. Class device, the cost of computing power is second. At the same time, the functional design on satellites is generally customized, which also leads to poor universality and flexibility. The user is narrow and the development is very slow. The chip used by the star -load computer is several magnitude worse than that of the phone's chip.

Today, after years of development, the calculation chip of commercialization and industrialization has been developed in terms of computing power, environmental adaptability, process, and low cost. The improvement of satellite computers has laid the foundation.

Take Galaxy Aerospace as an example. In terms of self -research on the star -shouted computer of the 02 batch of satellites, in the research and development of navigation chips, we have innovatively found the alternative chip solution to meet the flight requirements in the civil industry, and carried out the space environment requirements. The secondary irradiation reinforcement iteration design has reduced its cost by one order.

In addition, due to the continuous improvement of comprehensive electronic technology, the functionality of the star -load computer has been greatly improved, especially the commercial aerospace has carried out the application of high -performance CPUs in the orbit, which has enabled multiple star -load computers to collaborate to complete. It can be completed in a star -load computer now.

At the same time, the rapid development of commercial aerospace has also brought new development ideas. It can solve reliability such as mass, rapid iteration, and software upgrade iteration, and no longer rely on the reliability of a single device. On this basis, the design of satellite computers can also embark on the development path of the general computer on the ground, standardize and virtualize the hardware resources, and use the operating system platform and the middle layer of the software to make various functions on the satellite look like us Develop and use various application software to develop, download and use, and freely upgrade themselves. Thanks to the rapid development of artificial intelligence, big data, algorithms, and computing power, software capabilities are constantly extending to the boundary of the hardware. Software definition satellites are becoming a trend.

For example, in terms of software development, the star -load computer software of Galaxy Aerospace uses the commercial Linux operating system and file system, which greatly compresses the software development and the entire star test cycle, and also improves the stability of the system operation. The software used to update the software in the past 20 needs 20 software. For more than minutes, it only takes 1 minute now, as simple as copying files in a U disk.

At present, it is in the opportunity period for the development of space infrastructure. The application of satellites is continuously enriched. Facing a wider global user market, upstream and downstream enterprises upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain have greater power to continuously upgrade iterative hardware products to accelerate the iterative development of satellite computers. With the further computerization of satellites, space infrastructure will enter a more intelligent era.

Source of this article: "Global" magazine published on June 1, 2022

The author of this article is the founder, chairman and CEO of Galaxy Aerospace Xu Ming

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