Survey of High-Performance Processors and FPGAs for On-Board Processing and Machine Learning Applications

Over the last years there has been an accelerated increase in the requirements for On-Board Processing (OBP) for satellite on-board systems. These requirements include higher instrument data rates and the introduction of new techniques such as on-board machine learning inference (OBMLI). Outside of a demand for increased computational performance, the need for in-flight re-configurability, as well as shortening development time and cost are increasingly driving the selection of processors and FPGAs in the design of on-board systems.

To address these needs, several COTS processor and FPGA devices have been proposed for the use in space applications. While providing superior performance compared to devices specifically designed for radiation environment, the qualification status and lack of openly available radiation data may be prohibitive for the use of COTS devices in certain applications.

In this work, a survey of both COTS and RHBD devices supporting high-performance OBP that are currently used or have been proposed to be used in future missions are presented. The survey presented includes device parameters such as the relative performance, qualification status and the availability of radiation test results. Devices included in the survey are: FPGAs, MPSoCs, multicore processors, manycore processors, GPUs, dedicated AI/ML accelerators, etc.

Finally, an overview of the availability of machine learning tools for the listed devices is also presented. It is shown that several available devices targeting space applications, offer their users tools for the development and deployment of machine learning algorithms.

The work has been carried out partially internally at ESA, and through the on-going TRP activity "FOPIEA" (Future On-board Processing Information Extraction Algorithms). The goal is to have a tentative list of devices that can be used in future ESA missions for IOD purposes. Part of the work has already been provided as input for the ESA COTS initiative working group.