Hardware Acceleration in Genode OS Using Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration

Algorithms with operations on large regular data structures such as image processing can be highly accelerated when executed as hardware tasks in an FPGA fabric. The Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR) feature of new SRAM-based FPGA families allows a dynamic swapping and replacement of hardware tasks during runtime. Particularly embedded systems with processing chains that change over time or that are too large to be implemented in an FPGA fabric in parallel, benefit from DPR. In this paper we present a complete framework for hardware acceleration using DPR in the microkernel based Genode OS. This makes the DPR feature available not only for the high-performance computing field, but also for safety-critical applications. The new framework is evaluated for an exemplary imaging application running on a Xilinx Zynq-7000 SoC

Resource-efficient dynamic partial reconfiguration on FPGAs for space instruments

Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) provide highly flexible platforms to implement sophisticated data processing for scientific space instruments. The dynamic partial reconfiguration (DPR) capability of FPGAs allows it to schedule HW tasks. While this feature adds another dimension of processing power that can be exploited without significantly increasing system complexity and power consumption, there are still several challenges for an efficient DPR use. State-of-the-art concepts concentrate either on resource-efficient implementations at design time or flexible HW task scheduling at runtime. In this paper we propose a balanced algorithm that considers both optimization goals and is well suited for resource-limited space applications

Solar wind sputtering of dust on the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

International audienceFar away from the Sun, at around 3 AU, the activity of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is low and changes with local time (solar insolation), with location (chemical heterogeneity of the surface), and with season. When the activity is very low because the total cross section of the comet against the Sun is small, the solar wind has access to the surface of the comet and causes ion-induced sputtering of surface material, which we wish to observe.Methods. We used the Double Focussing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) of the ROSINA experiment on ESA’s Rosetta mission to search for mass spectrometric evidence of sputtered refractory species. In high-resolution mode, DFMS can separate some of the mass peaks of refractory elements from the many volatile species present in the coma.Results. At present, the locations of solar wind surface access are in the southern hemisphere of the comet (the local winter). Of particular interest is sputtering of dust grains on the surface. We observe global averages over the winter hemisphere of the refractory elements Na, K, Si, and Ca, presumably sputtered from grains residing on the surface. Compared to carbonaceous chondrites, the comet has the same Na abundance, is depleted in Ca, and has an excess of K. In addition, for Si the signal strength is strong enough to compile a coarse compositional map of the southern hemisphere. Most, perhaps all, of the observed variation can be explained by the solar wind being affected by the atmosphere of the comet

Autonomous on-board data processing and instrument calibration software for the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager on-board the Solar Orbiter mission

This is an open access article. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.A frequent problem arising for deep space missions is the discrepancy between the amount of data desired to be transmitted to the ground and the available telemetry bandwidth. A part of these data consists of scientific observations, being complemented by calibration data to help remove instrumental effects. We present our solution for this discrepancy, implemented for the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager on-board the Solar Orbiter mission, the first solar spectropolarimeter in deep space. We implemented an on-board data reduction system that processes calibration data, applies them to the raw science observables, and derives science-ready physical parameters. This process reduces the raw data for a single measurement from 24 images to five, thus reducing the amount of downlinked data, and in addition, renders the transmission of the calibration data unnecessary. Both these on-board actions are completed autonomously. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.This work was carried out in the framework of the International Max Planck Research School for Solar System Science at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. Solar Orbiter is a mission led by the European Space Agency with contribution from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager instrument is supported by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) under grant Nos. 50 OT 1201 and 50 OT 1901. The Spanish contribution has been partly funded by the Spanish Research Agency under projects under grant Nos. ESP2016-77548-C5 and RTI2018-096886-B-C5, partially including European FEDER funds. IAA-CSIC members acknowledge and funds from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa” Program under grant No. SEV-2017-0709. The solar data used in the tests are the courtesy of NASA/SDO HMI science team. Parts of the work shown in this paper have been introduced at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation conference.42 EditorialPeer reviewe

Halogens as tracers of protosolar nebula material in comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

We report the first in situ detection of halogens in a cometary coma, that of 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko. Neutral gas mass spectra collected by the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft during four periods of interest from the first comet encounter up to perihelion indicate that the main halogen-bearing compounds are HF, HCl and HBr. The bulk elemental abundances relative to oxygen are ~8.9 × 10⁻⁵ for F/O, ~1.2 × 10⁻⁴ for Cl/O and ~2.5 × 10⁻⁶ for Br/O, for the volatile fraction of the comet. The cometary isotopic ratios for ³⁷Cl/³⁵Cl and ⁸¹Br/⁷⁹Br match the Solar system values within the error margins. The observations point to an origin of the hydrogen halides in molecular cloud chemistry, with frozen hydrogen halides on dust grains, and a subsequent incorporation into comets as the cloud condensed and the Solar system formed