Microchip to Develop Next-Generation HPSC RISC-V Processor for NASA

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Ngày cập nhật gần nhất: 15/12/2025

Microchip has secured a $50 million contract to develop a new generation of highly reliable processors for space missions, planetary exploration, and missions on the surface of Mars and the Moon. With European engineers, Microchip will leverage the RISC-V instruction set architecture to create the HPSC (High-Performance Spaceflight Computing) chip for NASA, capable of computing over 100 times faster than the current generation.

The HPSC processor must ensure fault tolerance, radiation hardness, comprising 12 X280 RISC-V cores from SiFive, used in single board computers. Microchip will develop the architecture, design, and finalize the HPSC processor within a 3-year timeframe. In addition to fault-tolerant architectures that can be scaled, another important factor the chip must have is the ability to shut down processing blocks to save energy when necessary. HPSC is a high-performance multicore SoC platform, designed for reliability, fault tolerance, security, and energy efficiency. The chip also provides comprehensive Ethernet networking, advanced AI/ML processing, and connectivity support.

After acquiring Atmel, Microsemi, and a space design team in France, Microchip has gained extensive experience in the space industry. Microchip also has a close relationship with the RISC-V processor supplier, SiFive. Prior to this, Microchip had radiation-resistant devices (processors, network devices, memory) and a supply chain approved by NASA.

NASA stated that Microchip's HPSC processor could be valuable for U.S. Government agencies, particularly for satellite systems. The processor could be used for commercial systems on Earth requiring critical edge computing, similar to space missions, especially ensuring continued safe operation if one component of the system fails. Potential applications for HPSC include industrial automation, edge computing, artificial intelligence, and even IoT connectivity hubs, linking various communication technologies.

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