Fault tolerant power controller (for space power applications)

The operation of a fault-tolerant, triple-module, redundant space power controller is described. It is based on a radiation-hardened microprocessor that implements MIL STD 1750 instruction set architecture. The test results and associated hardware and software are presented. The fault tolerance is achieved at multiple levels. Single-bit memory errors are corrected by Hamming codes. Larger memory errors are corrected by requesting database information from adjacent modules. The controller employs voting of the input/output (I/O) data, trend analysis, sanity checks, a dual redundant I/O bus, graceful degradation and built-in ability for dynamic reconfiguration. The project concluded with a successful breadboard demonstration of the controller in conjunction with an in-house, existing LANDSAT power switching unit. >