China-made chip on Practice-9 B ensures information safety

The control system of the Satellite B of the Practice-9 satellites launched on October 14, 2012 has got updated to be smaller in size and higher in performance, a technology developed independently by a research team with the Beijing Control Engineering Institute under the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), said the Science and Technology Daily in a report yesterday.

The core processor and peripheral circuits of the control and management units on the Satellite B were replaced by a SoC (System on Chip) chip named "SoC2008", which means the satellite's autopilot has turned from an overall unit of equipment into a fingernail-size chip.

The "Soc2008", developed by the Beijing Control Engineering Institute, has made the performance of the electronic system on the satellite increase by 7 to 8 times with a 20% reduction of the power consumption.

"It means the previous single-function chips have been upgraded into a multi-functional brain system, said Hua Gengxin, chief engineer of space-borne computers and electronics with the Beijing Control Engineering Institute.

"The application of the Soc2008 has ended the day that our satellites had to use foreign-made chips or chips patterned from foreign products, which have long been threatening the information safety of China's spaceflight equipment, and solved the problems of localization and self-supply of core parts and devices," said Hua.