RTX2010

The RTX2010 radiation-hardened microprocessor manufactured by Intersil is a radiation hardened stack machine microprocessor which has been used in numerous spacecraft.

Characteristics

It is a two-stack machine, each stack 256 words deep each, that supports direct execution of Forth. Subroutine calls and returns only take one processor cycle and it also has a very low and consistent interrupt latency of only four processor cycles, which lend it well to realtime applications.

History

In 1983, Chuck Moore implemented a processor for his programming language Forth as a gate array. As Forth can be considered a dual stack virtual machine, he made the processor, Novix N4000, as a dual-stack machine. In 1988, an improved processor was sold to Harris Semiconductor, who marketed it for space applications as the RTX2000.

Example spacecraft that use the RTX2010

• Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)
• NEAR/Shoemaker
• TIMED

External links

• Rash, James. "Space-Related Applications of Forth". NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. http://forth.gsfc.nasa.gov/. Retrieved 2008-10-15. 

• Koopman, Philip. "Stack Computers: the new wave, Chapter 4.5 Architecture of the Harris RTX 2000". http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/stack_computers/sec4_5.html. Retrieved 2008-10-15. 

• HS-RTX2010RH product page at Intersil. Retrieved on 2009-02-11.