The standard supports data rates of 2Mbits/sec to 400Mbits/sec over 10 meters of cable. Originally developed by the European Space Community (document ECSS-E-50-12A), SpaceWire marries IEEE-1355 with an LVDS physical layer.

"Aeroflex Colorado Springs saw the benefits of the SpaceWire standard used in numerous European satellites; building a product family was our next step," said Anthony Jordan, director-standard products.

"The benefits are straightforward. SpaceWire is a simple protocol, a simple user interface (FIFO) with high data rates and low power using LVDS, has point-to-point full duplex and supports networked systems via routers".

Aeroflex's UT200SpW02 Protocol Handler is designed to manage the character level SpaceWire protocol. Data rates range from 2 to 200Mbits/sec with a 9-bit transmit and receive FIFO user interface, 2.5V core supply voltage and 3.3V I/O supply voltage. The UT200SpW02 is designed to withstand 300 krad(Si), upsetting charge particle strikes to 40 MeV-cm2/mg and is SEL immune to greater than 120MeV-cm2/mg. The Protocol Handler will be packaged in a 208-pin cerquad flatpack and will be offered as a QML Q and V compliant part.

The LVDS physical layer for the Protocol Handler is the UT200SpWPHY01 Physical Layer Transceiver designed to handle the critical timing issues associated with the SpaceWire Data/Strobe Encoding scheme. The UT200SpWPHY01 supports data rates up to 200 Mbits/sec with Data/Strobe transmit skew less than 400pS.

The UT200SpWPHY01 has a 3.3V power supply and the added benefit of cold spare on all pins. ESD performance of LVDS inputs/outputs is greater than 8000 volts HMB.

The UT200SpWPHY01 is designed to withstand 300 krad(Si), upsetting charge particle strikes to 40 MeV-cm2/mg and is SEL immune to greater than 100MeV-cm2/mg. The UT200SpWPHY01 is packaged in a space-saving 28-pin flatpack and will be offered as a QML Q and V compliant part.

"We have worked since 1999 with our aerospace customers to assist them in transmitting large amounts of data on satellites," continued Jordan.

"Our RadHard LVDS products are flight proven. However, as satellite missions become more complex, customers sought a low overhead, high performance, easy to implement serial data bus solution. We followed the industry's lead and are now offering a SpaceWire product family."

The UT200SpW02 SpaceWire Protocol Handler will be available as a Standard Microcircuit Drawing (SMD) number, QML Q and V qualified. Prototypes are available 4Q05 with production units in 2Q06. The UT200SpW02 is $2,985 in lots of 100.

The UT200SpWPHY01 Physical Layer Transceiver will be available as an SMD, QML Q and V qualified. Prototypes are available 1Q06 with production units in 2Q06. The UT200SpWPY01 is $1,195 in lots of 100. A dual link SpaceWire solution can be purchased as a set in quantities of 100 for $3,762.

Future Aeroflex SpaceWire Solutions include the capability to offer testing and support of Aeroflex SpaceWire products and a SpaceWire Multi-Port Router and the addition of a PCI bus to our Protocol Handler.

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