(Lockheed Martin Federal Systems/BAE Systems)
A result of the
Advanced Spaceborne Computer Module program, the RAD6000
was based on a commercial available chip, IBM's RSC6000. Lockheed Martin
made special (proprietary) modifications to harden the chip against radiation.
The
32-bit chip is able to process 35 million instructions per second (
MIPS)
while saving volume and energy. Pre-1990 space crafts were driven by a 16-bit
processor (3 MIPS).
NASA gave the RAD6000 processor its first flight in the
Mars Pathfinder mission,
in which the chip was integrated with memory and drivers on one
plug-in single
board computer.
It's successor is the
RAD750 processor.