The RH32S, especially "hardened" to withstand the harsh radiation of space, is central to controlling the advanced digital processors onboard the satellites of Astrolink's global broadband telecommunications system.

TRW is building the communications payloads for Astrolink, which is scheduled to begin providing interactive broadband access internationally in 2003.

The first five RH32S chips, completed on schedule, are now installed in development stations where they are being used to develop Astrolink applications software, according to TRW officials.

Full-scale production has begun on the chips that will go into the Astrolink payloads.

"The TRW RH32S is the highest performance radiation-hardened computer in the world today," said Paul Borzcik, TRW's Astrolink program manager.

"This chip's radiation hardness and its circuit design combine to provide an extremely fault-tolerant computer that ensures the levels of reliability commercial telecommunications customers have come to expect," added Borzcik.

The TRW RH32S cuts down greatly on size, weight and power consumption of the Astrolink payload, factors especially important onboard satellites, where size and power are limited.

The RH32S replaces a unit formerly requiring five chips packaged in a multichip module housing, reducing weight by 90 percent and power by 80 percent.

The weight and power savings per payload are substantial, because each Astrolink payload employs 16 RH32Ss. The silicon chips are complex digital processors, containing more than 5 million transistors each, and fabricated in the complementary metal oxide semiconductor, or CMOS, process.

The 16 RH32Ss in each payload operate as building blocks of a distributed controller architecture that provides modularity and flexibility.

Functions performed by the RH32Ss include allocation and control of payload resources such as the modems and ATM switch queues, security and fault management, and handling of the messages sent by Astrolink's Network Control Centers.

"The distributed architecture lets us place the MIPS (millions of instructions per second) where they're needed, as they're needed," Borzcik said.

"This dynamic approach is part of TRW's unique payload design that enables Astrolink to provide its customers with bandwidth on demand," he added.

While the Astrolink RH32S runs proprietary application software, this software is being developed using commercial off-the-shelf software tools and runs on a commercial off-the-shelf operating system.