Radiation-Hardened Pentium Chip: A Game-Changing Partnership for Military and Space Applications

A significant public-private partnership has been forged between Intel Corp., Sandia National Laboratories, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to develop a radiation-hardened version of Intel's Pentium series computer chip. This collaborative effort aims to create a more powerful and cost-effective solution for military and space applications, leveraging Intel's expertise in chip design while utilizing the government's research and development capabilities.

Key Takeaways:

• The partnership will result in a 400-megahertz chip technology, more than twice as powerful as the current radiation-hardened processors and 10 times more powerful than existing radiation-hardened processors.
• Intel will license the technology to the government at no cost for military and space applications, including satellites, space probes, missile defense, and other military uses.
• Sandia National Laboratories will lead the effort to make design changes in the Pentium chip's architecture, building upon their expertise in radiation hardening and microelectronics fabrication.
• The redesign process is expected to involve extensive alterations to impedance and capacitance specifications of devices within the chip, requiring a significant amount of analytical work from participating agencies.
• Prototypes of the custom chips will be fabricated and tested at Sandia's Microelectronics Development Lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico, while larger quantities will be manufactured by contract suppliers, restricting the manufacturing to the United States.
• The resulting chips will be subject to strict export controls and will leverage the capabilities of Sandia, enabling a more cost-effective and efficient solution for the government.

Statistics:

• The partnership involves a significant investment from Intel, which spent about $1 billion developing the Pentium chip.
• The redesign process is expected to involve significant changes to the chip's architecture, which may necessitate extensive analytical work and Hamiltonian integration of microchip design rules.
• Of the 16 initial companies capable of manufacturing radiation-hardened integrated circuit assemblies, only Lockheed Martin and Honeywell currently offer these services.
• The partnership aims to address the challenges of radiation hardening of computer chips, enabling integrated circuits to withstand the effects of cosmic rays and electromagnetic pulses generated by nuclear detonations.

Sources:

• Defense Week, Monday
• Intel Corp.
• Sandia National Laboratories
• NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
• The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)
• The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)