International Space Station Video System Upgrade Leverages Multicore SBC Technology from Trenton Systems

Following the United Electronic Industries' Cube-controlled COLBERT astronaut treadmill up to the International Space Station, Trenton Systems hardware has been selected for a critical upgrade to it's Microgravity Sciences Glovebox NTSC analog video system.

The upcoming Microgravity Sciences Glovebox (MSG) Video Upgrade Equipment (VUE) from Teledyne Brown Engineering uses the TSB7053 single board computer and BPG7087 backplane from Trenton Systems, providing embedded multicore Intel processor technology incorporated into a PICMG 1.3 single board computer (SBC) architecture.

The new VUE is a digital upgrade that removes the need for tapes and the associated problems with transporting the physical media between Earth and the station. The upgrade to digital data means transmission to the ground can be made by telemetry networks, allowing to the ground science teams to access the data much more quickly, and start their analysis within days of any MSG experiment, rather than the multi-month wait time typical with the current analog tape system.

MSG-VUE Video Drawer Front Panel

There are a number of reasons that Teledyne Brown Engineering of Huntsville, AL choose to integrate a Trenton Systems long-life SBC and PCI Express backplane into the MSG VUE video drawer for controlling key elements of the microgravity test chamber:

• Longevity: Computer equipment deployed on the ISS must remain operational as long as possible
• Flexibility: The ability to support different types of PCI Express plug-in cards is extremely important
• Scalability: The ability to quickly add custom or standard COTS plug-in cards is a distinct advantage
• Bandwidth: PCI Express bandwidth and data throughput capabilities are critical in the MSG VUE

Ground tests are nearly complete on key mission parameters like radiation exposure and data operations, and the MSG VUE will be handed over to NASA for a planned deployment on the ISS in mid-2014. The computer, camera, sensor and monitor technologies deployed in the VUE will provide years of operational support for the advanced science experiments conducted on the International Space Station.

For more information you can read the complete article here - ISS Video System Upgrade Leverages Multicore SBC Technology