RTX 2010
General information
Launched1988 (1988)
Common manufacturer(s)
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate8 MHz
Data width8 and 16
Address width20

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

Characteristics

Block diagram of the Harris RTX 2000 processor

It is a two-stack machine, each stack 256 words deep, 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 lends 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 (later renamed NC4016), as a dual-stack machine. In 1988, an improved processor was sold to Harris Semiconductor, who marketed it for space applications as the RTX2000.[1]

Example spacecraft that use the RTX2010

References

  1. ↑ US Expired 5070451A, Moore, Charles H. & Murphy, Robert W., "Forth specific language microprocessor", issued 1991-12-03, assigned to Intersil
  • "HS-RTX2010RH". Intersil. Archived from the original on 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2009-02-11. Intersil's product page.
  • "HS-RTX2010RH Data Sheet" (PDF). Intersil. March 2000. 3961.3.
  • Rash, James. "Space-Related Applications of Forth". NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Archived from the original on 2011-02-04.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.