SpaceFibre is a technology specifically designed for
use in spaceflight applications that provides point-to-
point and networked interconnections at Gigabit rates
with Quality of Service and Fault Detection, Isolation
and Recovery. SpaceFibre is backwards compatible with
SpaceWire, allowing existing SpaceWire equipment to
be incorporated into a SpaceFibre network without
modifications at packet level.
In this work we present the SpaceFibre Routing
Switch IP Core developed by STAR-Dundee and its
subsidiary STAR-Barcelona. This IP Core is fully
compliant with the SpaceFibre standard – including the
Network layer – thus providing a cornerstone technology
necessary for future on-board data-handling systems. We
also describe the capabilities and performance of the
Routing Switch design. The design provides a highly
flexible router comprising a number of ports and a fully
configurable, non-blocking, high performance, routing
switch. Finally, the implementation results of this
Routing Switch IP in radiation-tolerant FPGAs are
summarized and discussed. The Routing Switch IP has
been carefully implemented to optimise its performance
and minimise its footprint on radiation-tolerant FPGAs
(e.g. RTG4, Virtex-5QV or KU060) and ASICs.
The SpaceFibre Routing Switch completes the set of
essential SpaceFibre technology, providing a missing
building block for the next generation of on-board data-
handling systems.
