Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Upchurch, E..
JPL and the Center for Advanced Computer Architecture (CACR) is conducting application and simulation analyses of BG/L in order to establish a range of effectiveness for the Blue Gene/L MPP architecture in performing important classes of computations and to determine the design sensitivity of the global interconnect network in support of real world ASCI application execution.
In April 1991, Galileo's X-band high gain antenna failed to deploy. An alternate approach which utilizes the spacecraft's S-band low gain antenna was conceived and is in development. This approach will enable the accomplishment of at least 70 percent of Galileo's original scientific objectives. The short development period dictates that the spacecraft system design, the ground data system design, and the operational system scenarios and procedures necessary to conduct the mission be developed concurrently, and places a premium on validating the system designs as early as possible. This paper presents an overview of the Galileo Mission, briefly describes the changes required to implement the orbital phase of the Galileo Mission, and describes the functional model of the end to end system which was developed to support the systems design effort.
In April 1991, Galileo's X-band high gain antenna failed to deploy. An alternate approach which utilizes the spacecraft's S-band low gain antenna was conceived and is in development.
The Hyperswitch Communication Network (HCN) is a large scale parallel computer prototype being developed at JPL. Commercial versions of the HCN computer are planned. The HCN computer being designed is a message passing multiple instruction multiple data (MIMD) computer, and offers many advantages in price-performance ratio, reliability and availability, and manufacturing over traditional uniprocessors and bus based multiprocessors. The design of the HCN operating system is a uniquely flexible environment that combines both parallel processing and distributed processing. This programming paradigm can achieve a balance among the following competing factors: performance in processing and communications, user friendliness, and fault tolerance. The prototype is being designed to accommodate a maximum of 64 state of the art microprocessors. The HCN is classified as a distributed supercomputer. The HCN system is described, and the performance/cost analysis and other competing factors within the system design are reviewed.