All GaAs signal processing architecture
William A. Geideman, T.L. Rasset, T.A. Misko, Jan Wine · 1987
The architecture, design, simulation, and evaluation of an all-GaAs vector signal processor for on-board space-system applications are described. The vector processor, whose architecture is based on a modular, building-block approach, consists of three main units: the control/scalar processor, the vector memory, and the execution unit. Each unit functions independently from the other, enabling the data addressing, data processing, and control to operate in parallel rather than serial manner. The GaAs processor's performance was compared with the performance of several commercial processors including the CMOS MIPS processor. When the latter was substituted for the GaAs processor in the same vector processor architecture, the performance/power ratio was nearly equal to that of the GaAs processor, but GaAs has demonstrated a higher performance upper bound. It was found that, in addition to high performance, the GaAs vector processor has fault-tolerant features and is flexible and radiation hard.