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A scientific study of the problems of digital engineering for space flight systems,
with a view to their practical solution.


What's New

I am replacing mailing lists and augmenting this "What's New Page" with twitter at http://twitter.com/klabsorg

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May 29, 2010: Added "Drilling for Certainty" (Complexity and Human Understanding) to the Verification Page.

May 21, 2010: Added Board-Level Considerations for Power-Up and Power-Down of RTAX-S/SL FPGAs to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.

March 14, 2010: Added Heavy ion SEE test of Virtex4 FPGA XC4VFX60 from Xilinx to the Spaceborne Processors - Power PC Page and the Xilinx Radiation Data Page.

March 8, 2010: Added A HIGH PERFORMANCE COMMAND AND DATA HANDLING SYSTEM FOR NASA'S LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER to the Spaceborne Processors Page.

March 7, 2010: Added SpaceWire: Spacecraft onboard data-handling network (external link) to the Interfaces And Standards page.

March 6, 2010: Added RAD750TM SPACEWIRE-ENABLED FLIGHT COMPUTER FOR LUNAR RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER to the Spaceborne Processors - Power PC Page.

October 13, 2009: Added MRO Spaceflight Computer Side Swap Anomalies (RAD750) to the Spaceborne Processors - Power PC Page.

October 8, 2009: AX High Speed Sequencers has been added to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.  Performance of a power-on reset circuit and a 10-stage ring counter was measured.  The limits of the on-chip PLL were explored.

October 1, 2009: AX LVDS Input Speed Test has been added to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.  600 MHz operation was achieved.

September 26, 2009: Added "Rendezvous Integration Complexities of NASA Human Flight Vehicles" to the General Technology Page.

September 26, 2009: Added "Hubble Servicing Challenges Drive Innovation of Shuttle Rendezvous Techniques" to the General Technology Page.

September 25, 2009: Added "Apollo 13 Guidance, Navigation, and Control Challenges" to the Apollo Failure Reports Section (of the Reports Page), the Lessons Learned Page, and the History Main Page.

September 17, 2009: I am writing a paper on complexity for digital electronics. An interesting presentation is "Conquering Complexity" found on the the Design Software and Intellectual Property Page.

September 14, 2009: Added "SUMMARY REPORT of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee" to the Reports Page.

September 11, 2009: Design Guideline: "On-card Regulators and Voltage Margin Testing."

September 11, 2009: I am replacing mailing lists and augmenting this "What's New" page with this twitter account.


April 14, 2008: MAPLD Update and Me

(March 31, 2008: I'm trying to get time to work on this site; outside obligations are impeding and hopefully will be resolved soon.  Rich)

March 31, 2008: Added Best Practices for Researching and Documenting Lessons Learned to the Lessons Learned Page.

January 7, 2008: Added NESC Review of Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) Mission Mishap Investigation Board Review to the Failure Reports Page, DART Section.

December 19, 2007: Added NASA Project Management Challenge 2008, February 26-27, 2008 to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 12, 2007: Added Learning from Other People's Mistakes to the Lessons Learned Page.

November 8, 2007: Added Lessons Learned From Seven Space Shuttle Missions to the Lessons Learned Page.

November 8, 2007: Added Design of Memory Systems for Spaceborne Computers to the Presentations Page.  This presentation was given at the Flight Software Workshop 2007 (FSW-07) November 5-6, 2007, Laurel, MD. 

October 19, 2007: Added the following conferences to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

October 19, 2007: MAPLD International Conference Update

October 18, 2007: Posted presentation for seminar titled: "Engineering Aspects of the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) Digital Unit Design"  See more presentations on Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems.

October 8, 2007: Added 8th Annual Non-Volatile Memory Technology Symposium, November 10 - 13, 2007 to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

October 5, 2007: A sampling of waveformsfrom the LOLA flight model.  Outputs of 54ACS132 and RTAX2000S (high and low slew) included.  FPGA High Speed and Signal Quality Page and the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.

October 5, 2007: Announcing design seminar "Engineering Aspects of the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) Digital Unit Design" to be held on October 17, 2007.

October 5, 2007: Posted presentation for seminar titled: "Back to the Moon: The Verification of a Small Microprocessor's Logic Design"  See more presentations on Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems.

September 17, 2007: Announcing "Engineering Aspects of the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) Digital Unit Design" - (October 17, 2007).  Office of Logic Design (OLD) Seminar Archive.

August 10, 2007: Added Monitoring of a Digital Closed Loop Feedback Circuit to the General Application Notes Page.

August 8, 2007: Added HAL/S Documentation to the Spaceborne Processors Page and the Design Software and Intellectual Property Page.

  1. HAL/S Compiler System Specification
  2. HAL/S Language Specification
  3. HAL/S Programmer's Guide
  4. HAL/S-FC User's Manual
  5. Programming in HAL/S

August 7, 2007: Added Accelerated Verification of Digital Devices Using VHDLXL to the Verification Page and the Spaceborne Processor and Avionics Papers.  (Authored by ESA)

August 7, 2007: Added Use of Spare Logic Resources to the General Application Notes Page.

August 6, 2007: Announcing a NASA Office of Logic Design Seminar: "Back to the Moon: The Verification of a Small Microprocessor's Logic Design," September 19, 2007.  NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

August 6, 2007: Added IV Southern Programmable Logic Conference, March 26-28, 2008 to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

August 6, 2007: Added Flight Software Workshop 2007 (FSW-07), November 5-6, 2007 to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

August 6, 2007: Added Remembering the Space Age: 50th Anniversary Conference, October 22-23, 2007 to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

November 1, 2006: Three Years of Global Positioning System Experience on International Space Station has been added to the Lessons Learned Page.

October 10, 2006: Seminar: Design Verification Tutorial, presented at the 2006 MAPLD International Conference, September 25, 2006, Washington, D.C.  See: Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems and 2006 MAPLD International Conference Seminar: Design Verification Tutorial .

October 10, 2006: Seminar: Systems Safety and Embedded Computing Systems, presented at the 2006 MAPLD International Conference, September 25, 2006, Washington, D.C.  See: Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems and 2006 MAPLD International Conference: Tutorials and Seminars, Seminar: Systems Safety and Embedded Computing Systems.

May 24, 2006: Registration Open for the 2006 MAPLD International Conference, September 26-28, 2006, held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center with a session at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Washington, D.C.

May 20, 2006: Added the Proceedings of the Briefing on RT54SX-S, RTSX-SU, RTAX-S, and Eclipse FPGAs for Spaceborne Application, held May 10, 2006, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

May 17, 2006: Added "RTAX-S Boot Camp" to the Tutorials Page, Minicourse Section.

May 14, 2006: Updated "RTAX-S VCCA Transients" on the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page and the AX Series Radiation Data Page, SEE Section.

May 14, 2006: Added "RTAX-S VCCA Guidelines Update" to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page and the AX Series Radiation Data Page, SEE Section.

May 14, 2006: Added "Radiation Effects Test Summary: RadHard Eclipse FPGA"  to the Aeroflex FPGA Radiation Data Page.

May 14, 2006: Added "High Speed Testing of the Aeroflex RadHard Eclipse FPGA" to the Aeroflex FPGA Radiation Data Page.

May 13, 2006: Added "RTAX-S Single Event Effects (SEE) High-Speed Test Results – Update", to the AX Series Radiation Data Page.

May 13, 2006: Added "Elimination of RTAX-S ICCA Current Increase Due to Heavy Ion-Induced Upset" to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page and the AX Series Radiation Data Page, SEE Section.

May 13, 2006: Added "ESD Sensitivity of Actel RTSX-SU Field Programmable Gate Arrays" to the FPGA Reliability Page.

May 13, 2006: Added "Resolution of RTAX-S SEE Current Issue" to the  RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page and the AX Series Radiation Data Page, SEE Section.

May 13, 2006: Added RTAX-S DSCC Approval Letter to the FPGA and ASIC Military Specifications, Actel Section.

May 12, 2006: Added the Proceedings of the "Briefing: RT54SX-S, RTSX-SU, RTAX-S, and Eclipse FPGAs for Spaceborne Application."  Briefing held May 10, 2006, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

May 12, 2006: Added "Eclipse Boot Camp" to the Tutorials Page, Minicourse Section.

May 11, 2006: Added the following RTSX-SU TID reports to the SX-A and SX-S Series Radiation Test Data Page, Total Dose Section

May 11, 2006: Added Physical Analysis (DPA) Aeroflex Eclipse to the FPGA Reliability Page, Eclipse DPA Section.

April 20, 2006: RTAX-S Military Specifications are now available.  FPGA and ASIC Military Specifications Page, Actel Section.

April 8, 2006: Added Total Ionizing Dose Test Report -- No. 06T-RTAX2000S-D1PPY1 to the AX Series Radiation Data Page, TID Section.

April 6, 2006: Added RTAX-S VCCA Transients to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.

April 6, 2006: Updated OLD News #18: New FPGA Technologies: Currents, Voltages, and Temperatures, adding the transient voltage specification for the RTAX2000S.

April 3, 2006: Added The 25th Anniversary of STS-1 historical site to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page, Related Links Section.

March 30, 2006: Open for registration: Briefing: RT54SX-S, RTSX-SU, RTAX-S, and Eclipse FPGAs for Spaceborne Application: (May 9: RTAX-S Boot Camp; May 10: Briefing).

March 26, 2006: Added AIAA Horizons: Open Source and Free Software to the Design Software and Intellectual Property Page.

March 21, 2006: Added Common Mode Failures in Safety- and Mission-Critical Digital Electronics to the Error Detection, Correction, and Fault Tolerance Page.

February 28, 2006: Added the following application note, RTSX-SU and RTAX-S: Wafer Location Programmed into Silicon Signature to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page and the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.

February 24, 2006: Added "Sky Walking" Tom Jones at the NASA Goddard Visitor Center on March 5.

February 19, 2006: Added International Astronautical Congress (IAC), History Section, October 2-4, 2006, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 19, 2006: Added DSD 2006 9th Euromicro Conference on Digital  System Design: Architectures, Methods and Tools, Aug. 30-Sep. 1, 2006, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 16, 2006: Added The Seventh Annual Non-Volatile Memory Technology Symposium, November 5-8, 2006 to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 15, 2006: Added CFP: Configurable Computing Papers for TVLSI Special Section, IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems  to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 13, 2006: Added Systems Engineering Seminar on the Genesis Mishap to the Reports Page, Genesis Section

February 9, 2006: Added Griffin: Statement on Scientific Openness to the Speeches and Key Papers Page.

February 7, 2006: Added RTAX-S Sample ICC Data to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.

February 3, 2006: Requesting RT54SX16 or RT54SX32 Spares

February 1, 2006: Opened up Exhibit Reservation for the 2006 MAPLD International Conference.

February 1, 2006: Added FPGA 2006, February 22-24, 2006 to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

January 25, 2006: Added RTAX-S Grounds to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.

January 24, 2006: Added Managing Knowledge for Successful Mission Operations, March 2-3, 2006, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

January 24, 2006: Added presentations from the Briefing: RT54SX-S, RTSX-SU, and RTAX-S FPGAs for Spaceborne Application.

January 22, 2006: 2006 MAPLD International Conference - Call for Papers.

January 22, 2006: Added CPU86 8088/8086 FPGA IP Core from Hans Tiggeler's HT-Labs to the IP Library Page, HT-Labs Cores Section.

January 20, 2006: Added NASA's Exploration Systems Architecture Study -- Final Report to the Reports Page.

January 13, 2006: Added Destructive Physical Analysis (DPA) - RTAX1000S, D/C 0546 - January, 2006 to the FPGA Reliability Page.

January 13, 2006: Added RTAX1000S Destructive Physical Analysis (DPA) - D/C 0444 - December, 2005 to the FPGA Reliability Page.

January 12, 2006: Added NASA Advisory NA-GSFC-2006-01: Destructive Physical Analyses (DPAs) on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and Non- Volatile Memory Devices, Failure Reports, and Lessons Learned to the following pages:

January 9, 2006: Added Call for Papers: Accident & Incident Modeling & Reporting in a special issue of Reliability Engineering & System Safety to the Reliability Papers and Reports Page.

January 8, 2006: Added ICASE RQ: Formal Methods for the Quality Assurance of Digital Systems to the Verification Page.

January 7, 2006: Added Why Engineers Should Consider Formal Methods to the Verification Page and the  Software and Intellectual Property Page.

January 7, 2006. Added The Aerospace Corporation Space Qualification Test to the Testing Summary: NASA Test of Actel SX-A, SX-S and SX-SU FPGAs Page.

January 6, 2006: Added International Conference on Technological Advances in Aeronautics (TAFA), June 23, 2006, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

January 2, 2006: Added Lunar Module Interface Control Drawings to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.

January 1, 2006: Added Risk and Exploration: Earth, Sea, and the Stars to the General Aerospace Page.

December 31, 2005: Added NASA Project Management Challenge 2006, March 21-22, 2006 to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 30, 2005: Added Register for seminar notification e-mail list page.

December 30, 2005: Added Shuttle ALT Free Flight 1: GPC 2 Failure to the Space Shuttle Computers Page and the Reports Page, Shuttle Section.

December 30, 2005: Added Space Shuttle Orbiter Approach and Landing Test: Final Evaluation Report to the General Aerospace Page and the Reports Page.

December 28, 2005: Added the following to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.

December 27, 2005: Added the following:

December 24, 2005: Added Shuttle ALT Flight 1A: GPC 3 Failure to the Space Shuttle Computers Page and the Reports Page, Shuttle Section.

December 22, 2005: Added RTAX-S Action Probe to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.

December 21, 2005: Added EDAC and Dynamic Faults to the Error Detection, Correction, and Fault Tolerance Page and the Memory: Applications_Notes_and_Related_Information Page.

December 21, 2005: Added NOAA-13 Failure Report to the Reports Page, NOAA Section

December 21, 2005: Developing new page: Error Detection, Correction, and Fault Tolerance

December 20, 2005: Added Space Radiation Characterization and Recommendations for the 68332 µCXL to the Spaceborne Processors - 68xxx Processors Page.

December 20, 2005: Added PC603E 32-Bit RISC µP Radiation Effects StudyXL to the Spaceborne Processors - Power PC Page.

December 19, 2005: Added Analyzing the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro PowerPC using the Dhrystone Benchmark Application to the Spaceborne Processors - Power PC Page.

December 19, 2005: Added Xilinx Virtex-II Pro PowerPC Proton Test Results to the Xilinx Radiation Data Page and the Spaceborne Processors - Power PC Page.

December 17, 2005: About the First FPGA In Space.

December 17, 2005: Added 9th Joint FAA/DoD/NASA Conference on Aging Aircraft, March 6-9, 2006, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 17, 2005: Added DMSMS Center of Excellence to the General Aerospace Reference Page.

December 16, 2005: Added Aeroflex Eclipse to the SX-S, SX-U, RTAX-S, and Eclipse FPGA Briefing to be held January 18, 2006, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

December 16, 2005: Announcing Programmable Logic in the Radiation Environment - Part II to be given on January 24, 2006.

December 15, 2005: Added RTAX2000S Destructive Physical Analysis (DPA) December, 2005 to the FPGA Reliability Page, RTAX-S DPA Section.

December 15, 2005: Added RTAX250S Destructive Physical Analysis (DPA) - December, 2005 to the FPGA Reliability Page, RTAX-S DPA Section.

December 14, 2005: Added Digital Avionics Systems Conference, October 15-19, 2006, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 14, 2005: Added Actel Space Forum East, January 19, 2006, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 14, 2005: Added the following papers and reports to the Lessons Learned Page.

December 11, 2005: Added Software Development Standard for Space Systems to the Design Software and Intellectual Property Page.

December 9, 2005: Added Engineering of Reconfigurable Systems and Algorithms --- ERSA'06, June 26-29, 2006  to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

November 28, 2005: Announced seminar on Programmable Logic in the Radiation Environment to be held December 14, 2005.  Office of Logic Design (OLD) Seminar Archive.

November 27, 2005: Announced the 2006 MAPLD International Conference to be held September 26-28, 2006 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center with a session at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

November 27, 2005: Added 2005 MAPLD International Conference - Photos.

November 27, 2005: Added RTSX-SU and RTAX-S Part Densities to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.

November 17, 2005: Added the following papers to the Reliability Papers and Reports Page and the Briefing on Achronix Technology: High-Speed and Extreme Environment FPGAs and ASICs Page.

November 16, 2005: Added AX and RTAX-S FPGA Bond Wires to the FPGA Reliability Page and the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.

November 15, 2005: Added Presentation Material from the Briefing on Achronix Technology: High-Speed and Extreme Environment FPGAs and ASICs.

November 14, 2005: Added The PLL and Prototyping RTAX-S FPGAs to the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.

November 14, 2005: Added the RTAX-S and AX Application Notes Page.

November 6, 2005: The NASA Lessons Learned link has been updated as NASA HQ has located it on a new server.  Reference: Lessons Learned Page.

November 3, 2005: Added the following RTAX-S total ionizing does reports to the AX Series Radiation Data Page.

October 31, 2005: Added MS Kennedy 5920-1.5 LVDO SEE Test to the Low Voltage Dropout Regulators and DC-DC Converters Page.

October 30, 2005: Added OLD News #18: New FPGA Technologies: Currents, Voltages, and Temperatures to the OLD News Page.

October 30, 2005: Added Single Event Effects Testing of the HS-117RH Adjustable Voltage RegulatorXL to the Low Voltage Dropout Regulators and DC-DC Converters Page, Radiation Test Results Section.

October 30, 2005: Added the following two reports to the AX Series Radiation Data Page, SEE Section:

October 25, 2005: Added notice of FPGA Briefing on Achronix Technology: High speed FPGAs for Extreme Environments, to be held at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, November 15, 2005.  Registration required.

October 24, 2005: Added Single Event Transient and Destructive Testing of the National Semiconductor LM-117 Voltage Regulator to the Low Voltage Dropout Regulators and DC-DC Converters Page.

October 24, 2005: Added NSREC - Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, July 17-21, 2006, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

October 24, 2005: Added International Conference on Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology (SMC-IT), July 17-21, 2006, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

October 24, 2005: Added Fifteenth Biannual Single Event Effects Symposium, April 10-12, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

October 16, 2005: Announcing SX-S, SX-U, and RTAX-S FPGA Briefing to be held January 18, 2006, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.  Registration required.

October 15, 2005: Added the following FPGA reliability reports to the FPGA Reliability Page:

October 15, 2005: Added 52nd Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium (RAMS), January 23-26, 2006, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

October 13, 2005: Proceedings of the EEPROM Reliability Workshop have been published.  The workshop was held on October 12, 2005, as the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

October 11, 2005: EEPROM Reliability Workshop to be held October 12, 2005 *** ROOM CHANGE TO BUILDING 22, ROOM 396 ***

October 10, 2005: Added Proceedings of the Space Shuttle Technical Conference, June 28-30, 1983, to the Space Shuttle Computers Page and the Design Software and Intellectual Property Page.  I have broken out of the Proceedings 12 avionics and software papers and put them in separate .pdf files.  The entire Proceedings are also on-line.

October 9, 2005: Added Inadvertent Firing of L1L, L1U, R4U, F3L, and F3U (ORB) to the Reports Page, Shuttle Section and Space Shuttle Computers  and Avionics Page.

October 5, 2005: Added the following total dose radiation reports to the SX-A and SX-S Series Radiation Test Data Page.

September 30, 2005: Added Knowledge Capture and Management - Key To Ensuring Flight Safety and Mission Success to the Lessons Learned Page.

September 27, 2005: Added "Design Integrity Seminar" to the Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems Page.  This was presented at the 2005 MAPLD International Conference.

September 24, 2005: Added The Ten Commandments of Excellent DesignXL to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Page.

September 24, 2005: Added DesignCon 2006, February 6-9, 2006 to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

September 15, 2005: Added the following total dose radiation reports to the SX-A and SX-S Series Radiation Test Data Page.

September 15, 2005: Added 13th Reconfigurable Architectures Workshop (RAW 2006) to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

September 14, 2005: Product Discontinuation Notice: MEC RT54SX-S 0.25 µm FPGAs has been added to the User Notices Page.

September 13, 2005: MAPLD Reviews

September 3, 2005: Added TOTAL IONIZING DOSE TEST REPORT: No. 05T-RTAX1000S-D1GAH1 to the AX Series Radiation Data Page, Total Dose Section.

August 28, 2005: Added Single Event Upsets for Space Shuttle Flights of New General Purpose Computer Memory Devices to the Space Shuttle Computers Page.

August 20, 2005: Added Proton Single Event Effects Radation Test Report for the RHrFPGA Radiation_Hardened Field-Programmable Gate Array to the Atmel Radiation Data Page.

August 12, 2005: Added Reliability Prediction for Spacecraft, RADC-TR-85-229, to the Reliability Page.

July 30, 2005: Announcing the NASA Office of Logic Design sponsored EEPROM Technology Workshop: Hitachi and Maxwell, to be held October 12, 2005, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD.  Registration is required.  Individuals who wish to share experience and analysis should follow the instructions on the workshop page.

July 29, 2005: Added Proceedings: 2005 National Software and Complex Electronic Hardware Standardization Conference, Co-hosted by FAA and NASA, Norfolk, Virginia, July 26-28, 2005 to the Design Software and Intellectual Property Page.

July 29, 2005: Added "This Is What We Find In This Stuff," presented at the FY2005 Software/Complex Electronic Hardware Standardization Conference to the Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems Page.

July 26, 2005: Added Design, Test, and Certification Issues for Complex Integrated Circuits to the Verification and Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Pages.

July 26, 2005: Added Military Technologies Conference 2006, March 14-15, 2006, to the Conferences Page.

July 26, 2005: Added Components for Military and Space Electronics Conference & Exhibition, February 6-9, 2006, to the Conferences Page.

July 20, 2005: Lunar Landing Day

July 20, 2005: MAPLD Program Released!

July 20, 2005: Added 2005 Avionics Fiber-Optics and Photonics Conference, September 20-22, 2005 to the Conferences Page.

July 7, 2005: Seminar Announcement: "This Is What We Find In This Stuff" (July 25, 2005)

July 6, 2005: MIL-HDBK-1553A has been added to References: Interfaces and Standards Page.

June 30, 2005: DPA: AT17LV010-10DP-E 1 Meg EEPROM  has been add to the Memories Reliability Page.

June 30, 2005: DPA: Atmel AT40KEL040KW1-E FPGA has been added to the FPGA Reliability Page.

June 30, 2005: No Post Program Conditioning on UT28F256QL (Aeroflex antifuse-based PROM) has been add to the Memories Reliability Page.

June 25, 2005: Added Total Dose Radiation Test Report: MSK 5900RH - Ultra Low Dropout Adjustable Positive Linear Regulator to the Low Voltage Dropout Regulators and DC-DC Converters Page.

June 19, 2005: Added DC-DC Converter Roundtable 2005 Proceedings to the Low Voltage Dropout Regulators and DC-DC Converters Page.

June 19, 2005: Added the following to the Other Useful Links Page:

ESA, European, and Japanes Links

June 9, 2005: Added TOTAL IONIZING DOSE TEST REPORT: No. 05T-RTAX2000S-D1GAF1, RTAX2000S, Lot D1GAF1 to the AX Series Radiation Data, Total Dose Section.

June 5, 2005:  Added NASA Risk Management Conference. December 6-8, 2005  to the Conferences Page.

June 5, 2005: UPDATE -- ESD: A Tale of Two Lids to the General Application Notes Page and the May 2005 Briefing: Independent NASA Test of RTSX-SU FPGAs

May 27, 2005: Added the following IP cores from Hans Tiggeler's HT-Labs on to the IP Library Page, HT-Labs Cores Section.

May 27, 2005: Added Electrical Power Systems, Direct Current, Space Vehicle Design Requirements to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Page.

May 24, 2005: Added Space and Missile Defense Conference and Exhibition. August 15-18, 2005 to the Conferences Page.

May 24, 2005: Added Aeroflex FPGA IBIS Models (external link) to the FPGA High Speed and Signal Quality Page, External Links Section.

May 23, 2005: Added Ninth Annual Workshop on High Performance Embedded Computing, September 20-22, 2005, to the Conferences Page.

May 23, 2005: Added Evaluation of SiO2 Antifuse in a 3D-OTP Memory to the Antifuse Notes Page.

May 21, 2005: Added ESD: A Tale of Two Lids to the General Application Notes Page and the May 2005 Briefing: Independent NASA Test of RTSX-SU FPGAs

May 18, 2005: Notes from the May 2005 Briefing: Independent NASA Test of RTSX-SU FPGAs are now on-line.

May 18, 2005: Report: Defense Science Board Task Force On High Performance Microchip Supply has been added to the Reports Page.

May 16, 2005: DPA of RT54SX32SU-1CQ208BX1 has been added to the FPGA Reliability Page.  Report Number: Q50003DPA
Date Code: 0437  Lot Code: D122H1.

May 16, 2005: DPA of Hitach 58C1001 has been added to the Memories: Reliability Page.  Report Number: Q50002DPA
Date Code: 0349, 0431, 0433

May 15, 2005: Added FY2005 Software/Complex Electronic Hardware Standardization Conference, July 26-28, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

May 7, 2005: Added "The 'Bug' Heard 'Round the World" to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page, the Space Shuttle Computers Page, and the Design Software and Intellectual Property Page.  Discussion of the software problem which delayed the first Shuttle orbital flight.

April 28, 2005: Added Workshop on Radical Agent Concepts (WRAC), September 20-22, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

April 26, 2005: Added Digital Avionics Systems Conference, October 30 - November 3, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

April 16, 2005: Added "A54SX-A/UMC and RTSX-SU Comparison Notes" to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes and FPGA Reliability Pages.

April 14, 2005: Added "Actel Recommendations for Programming RTSX-S and RTSX-SU" to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.

April 14, 2005: Added SOFTWARE ASPECTS OF STRATEGIC DEFENSE SYSTEMS to the Verification and Design Software and Intellectual Property Pages.

April 12, 2005: Added Systems Engineering and Test Evaluation Conference, November 7-9, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

April 3, 2005: Added "Reliability and Endurance of FRAM: A Case Study" to the Memories: Radiation_Test_Results Page.

April 2, 2005: Added "The Effects of TID on Wear-Out of Advanced Flash Memories" to the Memories: Radiation_Test_Results Page.

April 2, 2005: Added "Radiation Issues and Applications of Floating Gate Memories" to the Memories: Radiation_Test_Results Page.

March 28, 2005: Added Technical Consultation of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Nickel Hydrogen (NiH2) Battery Charge Capacity Prediction to the Reports Page.

March 27, 2005: Added Space Shuttle Orbiter Reaction Jet Driver (RJD) Independent Technical Assessment/Inspection (ITA/I) Report to the Reports Page, Shuttle Section.

March 26, 2005: Added "Stereo Vision and Rover Navigation Software for Planetary Exploration" to the Design Software and Intellectual Property Page.

March 21, 2005: Added "RT54SX-S and RTSX-SU Gold Bonding Reliability Evaluation" to the FPGA Reliability Page, Actel DPA Section.

March 20, 2005: Added the following RTSX-SU total dose radiation reports to the SX-A and SX-S Series Radiation Test Data Page, Total Dose Section.

March 10, 2005: Added "ESD Sensitivity of Actel RTSX-SU Field Programmable Gate Arrays" to the FPGA Reliability Page.

March 10, 2005: Added two summary reports for the Independent NASA Test of Actel SX-A, SX-S, and SX-SU Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs):

March 9, 2005: The NASA History Division presents National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) -- this has been added to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page, Related Links Section.

March 8, 2005: Announced 2005 MAPLD International Conference - Call for Papers

March 8, 2005: Added Briefing Summary: Independent NASA Test of RTSX-SU FPGAs to the February 16, 2005 Briefing: Independent NASA Test of RTSX-SU FPGAs.

March 1, 2005: Added Non-Volatile Memory Technology Symposium, November 7-10, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

March 1, 2005: Added tPD Summary: NASA Test of Actel SX-A, SX-S, and SX-SU FPGAs.

March 1, 2005: Added The 15th International Conference on Field Programmable Logic, Reconfigurable Computing, and Applications August 24-26, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

March 1, 2005: Added "SBCCI 2005 18th Symposium on Integrated Circuits and Systems Design Chip," September 4-7, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 24, 2005: Announcing a Workshop on Pyrotechnic Initiators, Applications, and Lessons Learned, to be held at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, June 7, 2005.

February 23, 2005: Added DPAs of RTSX72SU FPGAs to the FPGA Reliability Page, Actel DPA Section.

February 23, 2005: Added Q50002 DPA: 58C1001 Hitachi EEPROM to the Memories: Reliability Page.

February 23, 2005: Added "Interim Assessment of the NASA Culture Change Effort" to the Reports Page.  Note that you may copy text and graphics from this .pdf file.

February 21, 2005: Added the APOLLO GUIDANCE COMPUTER (AGC) Schematics to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.

February 20, 2005: Added notes for the Briefing: Independent NASA Test of RTSX-SU FPGAs, held February 16, 2005.

February 18, 2005: Added two DPAs of RTSX-SU FPGAs to the FPGA Reliability Page, Actel DPA Section.

February 12, 2005: Added "AGC NOR Gate Specifications" to the Apollo Computers Page and the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.

February 9, 2005: Added 19th Annual Conference on Small Satellites, August 8-11, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 9, 2005: Added "Sample Data for Delta ICCI, RTSX-SU" to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.

February 1, 2005: Added "AGC Integrated Circuit Packages" to the Apollo Computers Page and the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.

February 7, 2005: Added CGO 2005 International Symposium on Code Generation and Optimization, March 20-23, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 7, 2005: Added 2005 IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference, July 11-15, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 7, 2005: Added Third IEEE/ACM/IFIP International Conference on Hardware/Software Codesign and System Synthesis, September 19-21, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 7, 2005: Added The 29th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference, July 25-28, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 7, 2005: Added 2005 International Military & Aerospace/Avionics COTS Conference, August 3-5, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

February 1, 2005: Added "Review of Lessons Learned in the Mercury Program Relative to Spacecraft Design and Operations" to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page and the Lessons Learned Page.

February 1, 2005: Added "AGC - Saturn V LVDC Comparison" to the Apollo Computers Page and the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.

January 31, 2005: Added Technical Symposium on Reconfigurable Computing with FPGAs, February 21-22, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

January 26, 2005: Added two Atmel radiation reports on their FPGA and configuration memories to the Atmel Radiation Data Page and the Memories: Radiation_Test_Results Page.

January 19, 2005: Added Satellite Outages and FailuresXL to the Programmable Reports Main Page, Failure Reports Section.

January 19, 2005: Added "When Spacecraft Won't Point"XL to the Lessons Learned Page and the Programmable Reports Main Page, Failure Reports Section.

January 16, 2005: Added Actel PCN 0408-RTSX-SU (yield enhancement for RTSX-SU) to the User Notices Page and the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.

January 14, 2005: Added "Military, Aerospace, Space and Homeland Security: Packaging Issues and Applications," May 3-5, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

January 14, 2005: Added the following total dose radiation reports to the SX-A and SX-S Series Radiation Test Data Page, Total Dose Section.

January 13, 2005: Added the SpaceWire Home Page link to the Interfaces and Standards Page.

January 13, 2005: Added "Apollo Experience Report: Spacecraft Pyrotechnic Systems" to the Apollo Experience Reports Page and the Pyrotechnic Devices and Firing Circuits Page.

January 11, 2005: Announced Briefing: Independent NASA Test of RTSX-SU FPGAs, to be held February 16, 2005, at NASA GSFC.

January 9, 2005: Added "Tin Plague" to the Reliability Papers and Reports Page.

January 8, 2005: Added ACTS PYRO Separation Band Anomaly (Shuttle Orbiter) mishap added to the Lessons Learned Page, Pyrotechnic Devices and Firing Circuits Page, and Reports Page, Shuttle Section.

January 7, 2005: Added Manned Space Programs Accident/Incident Summaries (1970 - 1971) to the Reports Page, Mishaps Section and the Reliability Page.

January 4, 2005: Added Advanced Technology Workshop on Reliability of Advanced Electronic Packages and Devices in Extreme Cold Environments, February 21-23, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 25, 2004: Added Hearth Report (NASA Project Management Study, 1981) to the Reports Page.

December 25, 2004: Added Manned space programs accident/incident summaries (1963 - 1969) to the Reports Page, Mishaps Section, Reliability Page, and the Pyrotechnic Devices and Firing Circuits Page.

December 25, 2004: Added two Skylab Lessons Learned documents to the Lessons Learned Page.

December 24, 2004: Added Ariane 5 Failure ResourcesXL to the Reports Page, Ariane Mishap Section.

December 24, 2004: Added O'Keefe's Resignation Letter, dated December 13, 2004, to the Speeches Page.

December 22, 2004: Added Block I Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC): How to build one in your basement to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.

December 21, 2004: Added White Paper on Definitions for and Approach to Anomaly Handling to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Page.

December 21, 2004: Added 2nd International Conference on Recent Advances in Space Technologies Space in the Service of Society (RAST), June 09-11, 2005, Istanbul, TURKEY, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 16, 2004: Added RADECS 2005, September 19-23, 2005, Palais des congrès, Cap Agde, France, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 14, 2004: Added HPCA-11 11th International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture, February 12-16, 2005, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 13, 2004: Added DSD’2005 8th EUROMICRO CONFERENCE ON DIGITAL SYSTEM DESIGN: Architectures, Methods and Tools, August 30th - September 3rd, 2005, 2005, Porto, Portugal, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 13, 2004: Added Military Technologies Conference, March 15-16, 2005, Boston, MA., to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 13, 2004: Added Assurance Issues Related to Electronic Wire BondsXL to the Reliability Page.

December 11, 2004: Added "Software Acquisition And Software Engineering Best Practices."XL to the Software and Intelluctual Property Page.

December 6, 2004: Added Destructive Physical Analysis of RTSX32SU-1CQ208B FPGA (Date Code: 0418; Wafer Lot: D110A1) to the FPGA Reliability Page.

December 5, 2004: Added "Results for the Programmable Logic Usage and Assurance Surveys" to the Verification Page.  A presentation and raw survey results are also available.

December 2, 2004: Added Commercialization of Military and Space Electronics Conference & Exhibition, February 7 - 10, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

November 22, 2004: "Fundamentals of Digital Engineering: Digital Logic" - Part II will be given on December 9, 2004.  Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems

November 21, 2004: Added Soviet Space Battle Station Skif and its prototype Polus Images to the Russian Space Program Page.

November 18, 2004: Added Actel Reliability Report, Q1, 2004 to the FPGA Reliability Page.

November 18, 2004: Added Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Digital Signal Processor Experienced Destructive Events as a Result of Ionizing Radiation Testing (SHARC) to the Spaceborne Processors - SHARC Page and the Lessons Learned Page.

November 17, 2004: Added SX-SU Rupture Test, BNL, November 2004 to the SX-A and SX-S Series Radiation Test Data and Antifuse Notes Pages.

November 16, 2004: Added "The Apollo Guidance Computer: A User's View" by David Scott to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.  Document courtesy Eldon C. Hall.

November 15, 2004: Added In-Flight Anomaly Database for STS-1 Through STS-107 to the Reports Page, Shuttle Section

November 14, 2004: Added 2004 MAPLD International Conference Seminar: "Aerospace Mishaps and Lessons Learned" to the Tutorials and Seminars Page, Minicourse Section.

November 14, 2004: Added 2004 MAPLD International Conference: Seminar: VHDL Synthesis for High-Reliability Systems to the Tutorials and Seminars Page, Minicourse Section.

November 4, 2004: Added The 37th Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture, December 4-8, 2004, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

November 2, 2004: Added OLD News #17: Actel SX-A, RTSX-S, and RTSX-SU FPGAs in Mission- and Safety-Critical Systems to the OLD News and FPGA Reliability Pages.

November 2, 2004: Added DVCon2005, Feb. 14-16, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

October 26, 2004: Independent NASA Test of Actel SX-A, SX-S, and SX-SU Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) started.

October 22, 2004: RT54SX72SU  Heavy Ion SEU Test, UMC Die, 0.25 µm, BNL, April, 2004.  bnl_04_2004_sx72su_seu.htm

October 20, 2004: SEMINAR NOTICE: "Virtex II: SEU's and Mitigation through TMR" to be held at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, November 9, 2004.

October 10, 2004: Announcing the Reliable Digital Electronics Workshop on Devices, Environments, Design, and Verification which is being scheduled for early 2005.  If you wish to discuss a presentation or propose a specific topic to be discussed, please contact me.

October 9, 2004: Added  "NOAA N-PRIME Mishap Investigation, Final Report"to the Mishap Reports Page, NOAA Section.

October 9, 2004: Added "MER Spirit Mishap" to the Lessons Learned, Memory: Applications Notes and Related Information, Mars Reports/Mishaps, and Software Page.

October 8, 2004: Added "RT54SX72SU Unprogrammed Antifuse Heavy Ion Test" to the Antifuse Notes Page.

October 5, 2004: Added the following radiation test reports to the SX-A and SX-S Series Radiation Test Data Page, Total Dose Section.

October 5, 2004: Added "Response to GSFC Failure Analysis Report Q40035FA Limited to Wire Bond and Possible Contamination Related Issues" to the Actel RTSX-S and RTSX-SU Briefing, September 2004.

October 5, 2004: New Office of Logic Design seminars announced:

October 1, 2004: Added "Analysis of Apollo 12 lightning incident"  to the Apollo Section of the Mishap Reports Page.

September 29, 2004: Added Space Shuttle Main Engine Controller to the Space Shuttle Computers Page.

September 28, 2004: Added "Managing the Moon Program: Lessons Learned From Project Apollo" to the Monographs in Aerospace History Series Page and the Lessons Learned Page.

September 27, 2004: Added released presentations for the Actel RTSX-S and RTSX-SU Briefing held on September 22, 2004, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

September 27, 2004: We experienced a major server "glitch" last Saturday and we think that everything has been restored.  If you see anything that is a problem on klabs.org, please LET ME KNOW!!!!

September 19, 2004: Added "Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS)," April 11-15, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

September 19, 2004: Added "Aircraft Nomenclature" to the General Aerospace Reference Page.

September 16, 2004: Added "Clock Skew and Short Paths Timing" to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Page.

September 11, 2004: A movie of the descent of Genesis has been added to the Reports Page, Genesis Section.  Genesis re-entered on September 8, 2004.  Michael Ryschkewitsch has been announced as the leader of the Genesis Mishap Investigation Board (MIB).

September 11, 2004: I apologize for the lack of content update over the past month.  A high workload combined with the 2004 MAPLD International Conference dominated my time.  There were a lot of papers presented at MAPLD, including a number of my own, with the presentations and papers to be published on klabs.org shortly.

July 30, 2004: Added Apollo Guidance Computer Documents, courtesy of MIT.

July 29, 2004: Added Report of the SEASAT Failure Review Board to the Reports Page, Mishaps Section.

July 28, 2004: Added material from Frank Capps, Northrop Grumman Corporation to the Actel RTSX-S and RTSX-SU Briefing: July 13, 2004:

July 21, 2004: "Independent Team Review - EEPROM Bit Failures in the RAD6000" added to the Memories: Reliability Page and OLD News #12: Summary of Recent EEPROM Failures.

July 18, 2004: "The Effects of Slew Rate on SX-S Series FPGAs" has been added to the FPGA High Speed and Signal Quality and SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Pages.

July 9, 2004: "A GPS Receiver Upgrade For The Space Shuttle – Rationale And Considerations" has been to the Space Shuttle Computers and Avionics Pages.

July 8, 2004: Technical Program for the 2004 MAPLD International Conference has been released.

July 8, 2004: "Electrical Systems in Missiles and Space Vehicles," H. J. Fichtner, Astrionics Division, George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, in From PEENEMUNDE to OUTER SPACE, Commemorating the Fiftieth Birthday of Wernher von Braun, March 23, 1962, Edited by: Ernst Stuhlinger, Frederick I. Ordway, III, Jerry C. McCall, and George C. Bucher. has been added to the Avionics  and History Pages.

July 1, 2004: "Special Instrumentation for Apollo Developmental Spacecraft," Alfred B. Eickmeier, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston Texas.  Aerospace Instrumentation, Volume 4, Proceedings of the Fourth International Aerospace Symposium, 1966, Edited by M.A. Perry has been added to the Avionics  and History Pages.

June 30, 2004: "Apollo Reaction Control Systems" has been added to the General Aerospace and History Pages.

June 29, 2004.  Added early NASA Phase 0 test results, LTOL data for the RT54SX72S to OLD News #16: Testing of Actel SX-A and RTSX-S Programming Algorithms

June 27, 2004: Added NASA History Series Publications On-Line to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.

June 27, 2004: The following Shuttle-related "lessons learned" papers have been added to the Lessons Learned and Space Shuttle Computers Pages.

June 25, 2004: Meeting Notice: Actel RTSX-S and RTSX-SU Briefing: July 13, 2004

June 22, 2004: Added "NASA Advisory: Testing of Actel SX-A and RTSX-S Programming Algorithms" to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes, User Notices, and FPGA Reliability Pages.

June 8, 2004: Added "RT54SX72S: Propagation Delay vs. Life" to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guides Page, the Timing Analysis Guideline Page, OLD News #4: Propagation Delay and Again," and the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.

June 4, 2004: Added "Beyond Normal Accidents and High Reliability Organizations: The Need for an Alternative Approach to Safety in Complex Systems" to the Lessons Learned and Columbia/STS-107 Mishap Pages.

June 4, 2004: Registration Now Open for the 2004 MAPLD International Conference

June 4, 2004: Added "Effectively Addressing NASA's Organizational and Safety Culture: Insights from Systems Safety and Engineering Systems" to the Columbia/STS-107 Mishap Page.

June 1, 2004: Added "Q1, 2003, Quicklogic Reliability Report," to the FPGA Reliability Page.

May 27, 2004: Added the "First Annual Space Systems Engineering Conference", November 8-10, 2004, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

May 17, 2004: Added Xilinx Reliability Report to the FPGA Reliability Page.

May 17, 2004: Added "OLD News #16: Testing of Actel SX-A and RTSX-S Programming Algorithms"  to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes and OLD News Pages.

MAY 15, 2004: NASA/OLD TO CONDUCT INDEPENDENT TESTING OF NEW PROGRAMMING ALGORITHM. ... DEVELOPING

May 11, 2004: Added NASA History Office Publications to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.

May 7, 2004: Added MAPLD Presentations for the 2004 MAPLD International Conference.  Late Abstracts Accepted for Poster Session

May 6, 2004: Added "Update to OLD News #15: "New Programming Algorithm" - Actel internal qualification program completed.

April 22, 2004: Added "ACM SIGPLAN/SIGBED Conference on Languages, Compilers, and Tools for Embedded Systems (LCTES'04)," June 11-13, 2004, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  SIGPLAN - PLDI

April 21, 2004: Updated, new data for "New Programming Algorithm" Reference 19 for OLD News #15: "Actel SX-A and RTSX-S Programmed Antifuses" as a reference to OLD News #15: "Actel SX-A and RTSX-S Programmed Antifuses," March 17, 2004.

April 20, 2004: Added "Radiation Results of the SER Test of Actel, Xilinx and Altera FPGA Instances" to the References: Radiation and FPGA Application Notes Pages.

April 16, 2004: Added 3rd Advisory Letter, April 14, 2004 to the Antifuse Notes Page and the FPGA Reliability Page.

April 14, 2004: Added "Design Seminar on Actel SX-A and RTSX-S Programmed Antifuses" to the Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace System Page.

Presentation

  1. Introduction
  2. Background Material
  3. Parts Handling
  4. Drive Strength
  5. Case Study: Simultaneous Switching Outputs
  6. Electrical Overstress Model and Programming Algorithms
  7. PCB Layout Issues
  8. Probing
  9. IBIS Models and Simulation
  10. Experiments

April 8, 2004: Added "Reliability Issues in Advanced CMOS Technologies: From Electrical Stresses to Radiation Damage" to the Memory Papers Page.

April 7, 2004: Added "New Programming Algorithm" Reference 19 for OLD News #15: "Actel SX-A and RTSX-S Programmed Antifuses" as a reference to OLD News #15: "Actel SX-A and RTSX-S Programmed Antifuses," March 17, 2004.

April 4, 2004: Added "A Renwed Commitment to Excellence: An Assessment of the NASA Agency-Wide Applicability of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board Report (The Diaz Report)" to the Reports Page.

March 29, 2004: Added Design Seminar on the programmed antifuse, to be held April 13, 2004, NASA GSFC.

March 26, 2004: Added "Designer Software Error for QCLK Macros (A54SX72A, RT54SX72S)" to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes and User Notices Pages.

March 26, 2004: Added "NASA Advisory: Actel RTSX-S and SX-A Programmed Antifuses" to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes, User Notices, and FPGA Reliability Pages.

March 22, 2004: Added "Third Annual Workshop on Duplicating, Deconstructing, and Debunking," June 19-20, 2004, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  Home Page

March 17, 2004: Added "OLD News #15: Actel SX-A and RTSX-S Programmed Antifuses" to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes and OLD News Pages.

March 17, 2004: Added NASA Advisory "Cable Failure Attributable to Workmanship Error During Assembly of COTS Connector" to the General Application Notes Page.  na-gsfc-2004-05.pdf

March 17, 2004: Added "Analysis of Printed Circuit Board Artwork: Bypassing," Rod Barto, Office of Logic Design, to the High speed_signa and Siganl Quality and Design Guidelines: Power System Pages.

March 17, 2004: Added Sample programmed and unprogrammed antifuses to the Antifuse Notes Page.  Data from "Reliability of Antifuse-Based Field Programmable Gate Arrays for Military and Aerospace Applications," (figures), McCollum, John, Roy Lambertson, Jeewicka Ranweera, Jennifer Moriarta, Jih-Jong Wang, and Frank Hawley, Actel Corporation, 2001 MAPLD International Conference, Laurel, MD., September 2001.

Samples:

March 14, 2004: Added "Drive Strength of Actel FPGAs" to the Design Guidelines and Criteria: Input/Output, FPGA High Speed and Signal Quality, and SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.

March 9, 2004: Added "International Conference on Reconfigurable Computing and FPGAs," September 20-21, 2004, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  reconfig04.htm

March 6, 2004: Added the "51st Annual Reliability & Maintainability Symposium," January 24-27, 2005, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  http://www.rams.org

March 5, 2004: Added "Design for Validation" to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Page.

March 5, 2004: Added the "12th NASA VLSI Design Symposium," May 26-27, 2004, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  University of Idaho Conferences

March 4, 2004: Added 2nd Advisory Letter, March 3, 2004 to the Antifuse Notes Page and the FPGA Reliability Page.

March 4, 2004: Added "Handling of Parts - Subsequent Testing or Analysis" to the General Application Notes Page.  part handling testing

March 3, 2004: Added "Single Event Upset and Hardening in 0.15 µm Antifuse-Based Field Programmable Gate Array" to the Papers and AX Radiation Pages.  jj_2003_ax.doc

March 3, 2004: Added "Space Parts Working Group" meeting, April 13-14, to the Conferences Page.   Space Parts Working Group

February 25, 2004: Added "Tin Whiskers - A 'New' Problem" to the FPGA Application Notes, General Application_Notes Page.  tin_whiskers_ak.doc

February 24, 2004: Added "TRST* and the IEEE JTAG 1149.1 Interface" to the FPGA Application Notes, General Application Notes, and User Notices Pages.  na-gsfc-2004-04.pdf

February 18, 2004: Added "The First Summary Report on the Independent Review of SX-S FPGA Reliability on NASA Space Flight Missions" to the FPGA Reliability and SX and SX-S/SX-A Application Notes Pages.  fpga_iat_summary1_final.doc

February 17, 2004: Added Destructive Physical Analysis of RT54SX32S-CQ208B FPGA to the FPGA Reliability Page.

February 10, 2004: Added "SEE Test on Actel RT54SX32-S FPGA using Frequency Count Test Method" to the SX-S Radiation Page.  esa_qca0202s_c.pdf

February 3, 2004.  Added the "Proceedings of the 2002 Nonvolatile Memory Technology Symposium" to the Memory Papers Page.  program.htm

January 29, 2004.  Added the following radiation reports on SRAMS and SDRAMS to the Memories: Radiation_Test_Results Page. 

January 29, 2004: Added "Fifth Annual Non-Volatile Memory Technology Symposium," November 15-17, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  http://nvm.jpl.nasa.gov

January 28, 2004: Added "SEE Measurements on the Aeroflex MCM Flash Memory" to the Memories: Radiation_Test_Results Page.  This part uses the AMD AM29F016 die.   mars_flash_final.pdf

January 28, 2004: Added "TD1822 0.25 µm SEE Test" to the SEU Hardening Page.  td1822_bnl0199.pdf

January 21, 2004: Added Some SX-S VIH/VIL Data at 125 °C to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.

January 20, 2004: Added speech by President Bush at NASA Headquarters on U.S. Space Policy, given January 14, 2004 to the Speeches Page.

January 18, 2004: Added Out of Compliance Solder and Upsets in XC2V FPGAs to the Xilinx Radiation Data Page and the User Notices Page.

January 18, 2004: Added the Actel Reliability Report, Q3 2003 to the FPGA Reliability Page to the FPGA Reliability Page.

January 18, 2004: Added the following RT54SX32S and RT54SX72S Total Dose Radiation  Test Reports

January 1, 2004: Added "Overshoot and Undershoot" to the FPGA High Speed and Signal Quality Page.

December 30, 2003: Added NASA ASIC Guide: Assuring ASICs for Space to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Page.

December 21, 2003: Added Actel Advisory Letter and Background Information on the Actel SX-S Antifuse to the Antifuse Notes Page and the FPGA Reliability Page.

December 10, 2003: Added seminar titled "From Anonymity to Ubiquity: A Study of Our Increasing Reliance on Fault Tolerant Computing" to the Tutorial and Minicourses Page.

December 5, 2003: Added Timing Analysis of Asynchronous Signals to the General Application Notes Page.

December 5: 2003: Added reference to "The Effects of Upsets within the Configuration Memory of SRAM FPGAs" to the DEI References: Radiation Page.   B_Wirthlin.pdfXL

December 5, 2003: Updated SX-S Clock Performance on the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.

December 2, 2003: Added "2004 IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference" to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

December 2, 2003: Added "Analysis of POR Circuit Topologies" to the General Application Notes Page.

November 28, 2003: Added "Asynchronous & Synchronous Reset Design Techniques - Part Deux" to the General Application Notes Page.

November 27, 2003: Added RC Timing Notes to the General Application Notes Page.  Generalized formula for the timing of RC circuits and some precalculated values for cases frequently encounters along with a calculator.

November 27, 2003: Added "Some Characteristics of Crystal Clock Oscillators During the Turn-On Transient" to the General Application Notes Page.

November 19, 2003: Added the "2004 NASA/DoD Conference on Evolvable Hardware Conference" to the Conferences Page.

November 19, 2003: Added "OLD News #14: Testing and Application of Modern Microelectronic Devices: Do's, Don'ts, and Failures" to the OLD News Page.

November 14, 2003: Added "Flip-Flop Replication" to the Software and IP Page, Applications Notes Sectionreplication.htm

November 11, 2003: Added "EUROMICRO Symposium on Digital System Design: Architectures, Methods and Tools" to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  Digital System Design Home Page. August 31 - September 3, 2004

November 9, 2003: Added "Signal Integrity: IBM Luna C DRAM" to the Memory: Applications Notes and Related Information Page and the FPGA High Speed and Signal Quality Page.

November 8, 2003: Added "'TTL Compatible' Inputs in CMOS Devices" to the General Application Notes Page.

November 4, 2003: Software Technology Conference - Technology: Protecting America added to the Conferences Page.  Salt Lake City, Utah, April 19-22, 2004

November 4, 2003: Added Suggestions for VHDL Design Presentation to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guides Page.

October 28, 2003: Added "GRFPU High-Performance Floating-Point Unit" to the IP Library Page, Processors Sectionhttp://www.gaisler.com/fpu.htmlXL

October 24, 2003: Added RH1280 Lifetest Delta Data (raw) to the FPGA Reliability Page.  Data for binning delay and standby current.

October 20, 2003: Added RH1280 Lifetest Delta Data to the FPGA Application Notes Page.  Note that change in delays do not track.

October 15, 2003: Added the CONTOUR Mishap Investigation Board Report to the Reports Page, CONTOUR Section.

October 14, 2003: Added "Designing Integrated Circuits to Withstand Space Radiation" to the Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems Page.

October 14, 2003: Added "Picosecond Lasers for Single-Event Effects Testing" to the Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems Page.

October 13, 2003: Added "What Could Go Wrong? The Effects of Ionizing Radiation on Space Electronics" to the Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems Page.

October 13, 2003: Added "Heavy Ion Testing for Single-Event Effects" to the Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems Page.

October 13, 2003: Added "A Space Oddity: Van Allen Radiation Belts" to the Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems Page.

October 13, 2003: Added "An Overview of the Space Radiation Environment" to the Tutorials for Programmable Logic and Military and Aerospace Systems Page.

October 6, 2003: Added a Power-On Reset Circuit to the Miscellaneous Devices Page.  Along with generating resets, it also has a watchdog timer built in.  00538_reset_circuit.pdf

October 3, 2003: Added NSCAT Digital Subsystem Design Documentation and Analyses to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guides Page.

October 3, 2003: Added notice of the "1st Workshop on Embedded Parallel Architectures," Feb. 14, 2004, to the Conferences Page.    wepa-1.htm

October 1, 2003:  Added Actel Reliability Report for Q2, 2003 to the FPGA Reliability Page.

September 30, 2003: Added "Electronic Reliability Design Handbook - MIL-HDBK-338B" to the Reliability Page and Military Specifications Page. 

September 28, 2003: Added the Proceedings of the 2000 Nonvolatile Memory Technology Symposium to Memory Papers Page.  nvmts_2000.htm

September 24, 2003: Added the Proceedings of the 2001 Nonvolatile Memory Technology Symposium to Memory Papers Page.  nvmts_2001.htm

September 20, 2003: "EEPROM Evaluation and Reliability Analysis" has been added to the Memories: Reliability Pageeeprom_evaluation_aerospace.pdf  -  e-mail me for access.

September 20, 2003: "Reliability Report: HN58C1001 Series CMOS 1M EEPROM" has been added to the Memories: Reliability Pagehitachi_1mg_reliability.pdf

September 17, 2003: Presentations for the 2003 MAPLD International Conference are now on-line.

September 14, 2003: Added Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) Mishap Report to the Columbia/STS-107 Mishap Page

August 12, 2003: Added "Root Cause Analysis (RCA)" to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines    root_cause_analysis_bradley_2003.pdf

August 9, 2003: Added the "2004 IEEE Aerospace Conference," March 6-13, 2004, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  http://www.aeroconf.org/

August 6, 2003: Added About Mishap Investigation to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Page.

August 6, 2003: Added icci_inrush_sx-x_data_nasa.pdf - This adds new data on the RT54SX72S to OLD News #10: RT54SX32S High ICCI Inrush Current and the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.

August 5, 2003: Added link to the Reliability Analysis Center to the Reliability Page.

August 3, 2003: Added Papers from the 2003 IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference to the Papers Page.

July 31, 2003: Added "The 21st Aerospace Testing Seminar: Effective Testing in a Challenging Project Environment" to the Conferences and Calls for Papers PageAerospace Testing Seminar Homepage

July 31, 2003: Added "Single Event Upset and Hardening in 0.15µm Antifuse-Based FPGA" to the Presentations Page and the AX Series Radiation Data Pagensrec_2003.ppt   nsrec_2003_portrait.ppt

July 25, 2003: Added "Galileo Attitude and Articulation Control Subsystem Electronics Worst Case Analyses, Volume I Worst Case Analyses (WCA) Description and Criteria," to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guides Page.  wca_galileo

July 25, 2003: Added "Shortcomings in Ground Testing, Environment Simulations, and Performance Predictions for Space Applications" to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guides Page.  stas_92

July 21, 2003: Added "SEE Data Summary for commercial AX1000" to the AX Series Radiation Data Page, SEE Sectionnsrec_ax_commercial_2003

July 15, 2003: Added "OLD News #13: Minimum Delays and Clock Skew in SX-A and SX-S FPGAs" to the OLD News page.

July 13, 2003: Added "Raytheon Reliability Report, Memory Products, 1991" to the Memories Reliability Page.

July 12, 2003: Added "Actel Reliability Report, Q1, 2003" to the FPGA Reliability Page.  Actel_Reliability_Q103.pdf

July 7, 2003: Added "JPL Reliability Analyses Handbook" to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guides Page.  jpl_d_5703.pdf (e-mail for access)

July 6, 2003: Added "SEEQ EEPROM Reliability Requirements" to the Memory Reliability Page.

July 3, 2003: OLD News #12: Summary of Recent EEPROM Failures to the OLD News page.

July 3, 2003: Added "256K Paged CMOS E2PROM FM28C256 Failure" to the Memory Reliability Page.   seeq_95

June 29, 2003: Added the "17th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites" to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  Small Satellite Conference

June 24, 2003: UPDATE: "RT54SX-S ICCI Inrush Current" has been added to the SX and SX-A Application Notes Page and the User Notices Pagepcn0304_inrush.pdf

June 24, 2003: Added a link to NEPP - EEE Parts for Space ApplicationsXL on the DEI/References: Logic Devices Page.

June 21, 2003: Opened up a new page: Pyrotechnic Devices and Firing Circuits.  Still have some more material to get.  Send in your suggestions.

June 19, 2003: Technical Program.Released for the 2003 MAPLD International Conference: MAPLDCon03.html

June 17, 2003: Added the "ESA Software Initiative" presentation to the Software and IP Page and the References: Software Page.  esa_software_initiative_final_may_7.pdf

June 13, 2003: Added additional total dose radiation data to the SX-A and SX-S Series Radation Data Page.

June 12, 2003: Added a failure analysis (ESD) for the UTMC 5962R9583402QXA LVDS receiver to the Misc. and Other Stuff Page

June 10, 2003: Added "Functional Triple Modular Redundancy (FTMR): VHDL Design Methodology for Redundancy in Combinatorial and Sequential Logic, Design and Assessment Report" to the SEU Hardening Page.  functional_tmr_fpga_003_01-0-2.pdf

June 10, 2003: Added "Suitability of Reprogrammable FPGAs in Space Applications: Feasibility Report" to the FPGA Application Notes Page.  fpga_suitability_fpga_002_01-0-4.pdf

June 9, 2003: "How Software Errors Contribute to Satellite Failures - Lessons Learned" has been added to the Lessons Learned Page.  scsra.pdf (open version)

June 4, 2003: Added "Maxwell EEPROM Bit and Page Failure Investigation Report" to the Memories: Reliability Page.   eeprom_failure_june_2003.pdf   e-mail for access

May 29, 2003: Added OLD News #11: Interface Components and ESD to the OLD News page.

May 22, 2003: Added failure analysis report on ESD damage to 5V, cold-sparing, LVDS receivers to the Misc. and Other Stuff Page.    lvds_fa_mla.doc, lvds_fa_mla.pdf

May 17, 2003: Added Lattice Semiconductor reliability report for the first half of 2002 to the PAL Page and the FPGA Reliability Pagelattice_reliability_2002_1h.pdf

May 16, 2003: Added OLD News #10: RT54SX32S High ICCI Inrush Current to the OLD News page.

May 3, 2003: Added "Frequently Seen Space/Astronomy Acronyms" to the References: General Aerospace Page.  http://tla.surly.org

April 23, 2003: Added "HPCA-10: 10th International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture" to the Conferences Page.  HPCA-10XL

April 22, 2003: Added NASA Technical Standards to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Page:

April 17, 2003: Added radiation test reports to the SX-A and SX-S Series Radiation Test Data Page.

April 15, 2003: Added links to two microprocessor IP cores to the IP Page, Processor Section

April 11, 2003: Added ProASIC Reliability Report to the FPGA Reliability page.  proasic_reliability_april_2002/

April 11, 2003: Added "Actel Corporation COTS and Up-Screening Policy" has been added to the General Application Notes Page.  actel_upscreening_policy.pdf

April 11, 2003: The following reports have been added to the FPGA Reliability page.

April 9, 2003: Added "High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) Workshop" to the Conferences Page.  HPEC Home Page

April 7, 2003: ESD Test Results for UTMC devices (5V and 3.3V, cold and non-cold sparing) have been added to the LVDS section.  Note that some of these devices have a relatively low ESD rating, something that is becoming more and more common with modern devices.  ESD UTMC LVDS

April 7, 2003: Although a lot has not appeared on this What's New page, there has been a tremendous effort on the Processors and Avionics sections of our www site.  Processors and Avionics.  More information is being uploaded in this process.  Stay tuned ...

April 7, 2003: Added "Non-Volatile Memory Technology Sympoisum" to the Conferences Page.  November 12-13, 2003.  Non Volatile Memory Technology

March 13, 2003: Added "DesignCon East" to the Conferences Page.  June 23-25, 2003.  DesignConEast 2003

March 7, 2003: Added "Clock Skew and Short Paths Timing" to the FPGA Application Notes Page.  clock_skew2e.pdf

March 4, 2003: Added an update to "Using A54SX72A and RT54SX72S Quadrant Clocks" to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.  qclk_e_reva.pdf

February 25, 2003: Added "OLD News #9: Heat Sinks In Integrated Circuit Packages Can Cause Shorts" to OLD News.    OLD News #9.

February 17, 2003: Added "OLD News #8: Silicon Sculptor Software Versions 3.66 DOS and 4.29 Windows and Programmed RT54SX72S Devices"

February 15, 2003: Added "Satellite GN&C Anomaly Trends" to the Lessons Learned Page.  satellite_anomaly_br.pdf

February 15, 2003: Added "International Signal Processing Conference - ISPC and the Global Signal Processing Expo - GSPx," March 31-April 3, 2003, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.    International Signal Processing Conference & GSPx

February 10, 2003: Added "Up screening: A Manufacturer’s Viewpoint" to the General Application Notes Page.

February 4, 2003: Added Application Note on Grounding the MODE Pin in Actel Field Programmable Gate Arrays to the Actel User Notes and FPGA Application Notes Pages.

January 31, 2003: Added The FPGA Tour: LEARNING THE ROPES" to the FPGA Tutorial Page.  Circuit Cellar - Digital Library - CCO

January 31, 2003: Added "3rd Meeting of the U.S. Software System Safety Working Group" to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  Software System Safety Working Group 2003 Workshop

January 31, 2003: Added papers from the 2002 MAPLD International Conference link to the Papers Page.  MAPLD Con 2002

January 23, 2003: Added "Using A54SX72A and RT54SX72S Quadrant Clocks" to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Page.  qclk_e.pdf

January 22, 2003: Added the "2003 NASA/DoD Conference on Evolvable Hardware," July 9 - 11, 2003, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.  The 2003 NASA/DoD Conference on Evolvable Hardware

January 21, 2003: Added the "Fourth Annual NEPP Conference," April 29 - May 1, 2003, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

January 20, 2003: Up-Screening of Xilinx Products has been added to the General Application Notes Page.

January 17, 2003: Added "NASA Symposium on VLSI Design," May 28-29, 2003, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.   University of Idaho Conferences

January 17, 2003: Added "15th Annual 2003 International Military & Aerospace/Avionics COTS Conference, Exhibition & Seminars," August 27-29, 2003, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.

January 13, 2003: Call for papers for the 2003 MAPLD International Conference is now open.  MAPLDCon03.html

January 9, 2003: Added OLD News #7: TRST* and the IEEE JTAG 1149.1 Interface to the OLD News Page.

December 25, 2002: Added select papers from the Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS) Conference to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page:

December 19, 2002: Added "The Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium," January 27-30, 2003, to the Conferences and Calls for Papers Page.   The Annual R&M Symposium (RAMS)

December 18, 2002: Added "Altera Reliability Report 37, Q2, 2002" to the FPGA Reliability page.  altera_reliability_q202.pdf

December 18, 2002: Some limits have been changed to 20 microamps.   Application note added to Actel User Notes  and the SX and SX-A Application Notes Pages.  SXA Tri-State Leakage

December 11, 2002: "LFSR Testbench" has been added to the Design Software and Intelluctual Property Page, Utilities Section.   lfrs_testbench.exe   lfrs_testbench.zip.  Courtesy of Jean Nicolle (http://www.logiccell.com/~jean/LFSR/)

  1. Change interactively the LFSR settings (length, taps, style, lockup or no lock-up states, ...).
  2. Visualize the matching schematic.
  3. Get the binary sequence list and length.
  4. Get the corresponding HDL designs in AHDL, VHDL, or Verilog.

December 11, 2002: "TRST Pin for SX, SX-A, and SX-S Devices" has been added to the SX and SX-A Application Notes and the SX and SX-A Power IO pages.  Note that the revised data sheet for the RT54SX devices are incorrect; there is no pullup resistor for TRST* in the SX-series devices.  trst_pin.htm

December 9, 2002: "Gold Bonding Reliability in Actel’s RT54SXS and A54SXA High Density FPGA Devices" has been added to the Reliability and FPGA Reliability Pages.

December 9, 2002: "Sample data on LVDS propagation delay as a function of temperature, voltage, and loading" has been added to the Misc. and Other Stuff Page.  utmc_lvds_prop_delays_5v.pdf

December 8, 2002: "Actel 54SX32A Ground Bounce Testing Results" has been added to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes and FPGA High Speed and Signal Quality Pages.  ground_bounce_sx32a_apl.htm

November 27, 2002: December 2002 E Flash (.doc)    (.pdf)   See the EEE Links Page for related columns.  "Programmable Logic Application Notes" is returning!

November 26, 2002: "The International Symposium on High-Performance Computer Architecture " has been added to the Conferences Page.    HPCA-9

November 20, 2002: Reliability report for Quicklogic Devices, Q2, 2002, has been added to the FPGA Reliability Page.   qlogic_reliability_report_q2_2002.pdf

November 18, 2002: Added the DTRA's Electronics Radiation Response Information Center (ERRIC) to the References: Radiation Page.  Odd url, can't make it work here, so copy and paste this into your browser:  http://www.dtra.mil/td/td%5Ferric.html

November 18, 2002: "IFIP 12th International Conference on Very Large Scale Integration" has been added to the Conferences Page.   vlsi2003/

November 15, 2002: "DesignCon 2003" has been added to the Conferences Page.  DesignCon 2003: Overview

November 14, 2002: The following conferences have been added to the Conferences Page.

November 13, 2002: A Reconfigurable Computing Primer has been added to the Adaptive Computing and Tutorial Pages.

November 8, 2002:  For the RT54SX72S, CQ208 package pin 13 is an I/O and is not a VCCI connection.  This has been added to the SX and SX-A Application Notes Page.   data_sheet_vcci_pin.htm

November 6, 2002: Added Reconfigurable Computing Systems at LANL to the Adaptive Computing Page.

November 4, 2002: Added "C-C Cell Flip-Flops in SX, SX-A, SX-S" to the SX and SX-A Application Notes Page.    cc_mod_flip_flops.htm

Abstract
A simple circuit of one negative edge triggered flip-flop is shown below.  This should increase the LET resistance of the memory element, when compared to an R-Cell in SX and SX-A technology.  For SX-S, this is a technique that can be used to increase the number of flip-flops available.  However, data indicates that an R-Cell was used, not the pair of C-Cells, which would give the user an implementation that did not have the expected SEU tolerance.

November 1, 2002: "Euromicro Symposium on Digital System Design: Architectures, Methods and Tools" September 3-5, 2002, Antalya, Turkey, has been added to the Conferences Page.  DSD

October 21, 2002: "IEEE Standard 1149.1 (JTAG) in the SX/RTSX/SX-A/eX/RT54SX-S Families" has been added to the SX and SX-A Application Notes Page.  sx_sxa_jtag.pdf

October 13, 2002: The "Space Almanac" has been added to the General Aerospace Reference Page.   http://www.afa.org/magazine/Aug2002/0802space.pdf

October 9, 2002: "Programmed Logic Devices (PLDs) and Complex Electronic Hardware," from the FAA, has been added to the Presentations Page.   ceh_pld2_faa.pdf

October 8, 2002: "SX-A/RT54SX-S SSO Preliminary Results" has been added to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Page.  sso-10-1-02_actel.pdf

October 4, 2002: "IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI" has been added to the Conferences Page.   ISVLSI 2003

October 4, 2002: "Kapton® Tape Identification," has been added to the General Application Notes Page.  na-gsfc-2002-03.pdf

October 1, 2002: "WIRE Case Study" has been added to the Reports Page, Small Explorer Section.  nasa_wire_lesson.pdf

October 1, 2002: "Product Qualification Report For RT54SXS (72S & 32S)" has been added to the FPGA Reliability Page and the Reliability Page.  qual_report_sxs_july_2002.pdf

October 1, 2002: The 21st Aerospace Testing Seminar: "Effective Testing in a Challenging Project Environment" has been added to the Conferences PageAerospace Testing Seminar Homepage

September 30, 2002: AX Series Radation Data Page has been created and added to the FPGAs and ASICs Page.  A first set of data is posted.

September 30, 2002:"Programmable Logic in the Radiation Environment," presented at the 2002 MAPLD International Conference, has been added to the Tutorial Page, Minicourses Section   Programmable Logic in the Radiation Environment

September 30, 2002: "Fundamental Logic Design: Clocking, Timing Analysis, and State Machine Design," presented at the 2002 MAPLD International Conference, has been added to the Tutorial Page, Minicourses Section   Clocking, Timing, and State Machine Seminar

September 23, 2002: OLD News #5: Grounding Virtex Lids has been added to the OLD News Page.

September 23, 2002: Added "Engineering of Reconfigurable Systems and Algorithms -- ERSA'03" to the Conferences Page.    ERSA '03    Call for Papers

September 23, 2002: "Single Event Upset (SEU) Mitigation by Virtual Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) in Design Reduces Manufacturing Cost and Lowers Power" added to the SEU Hardening Page.     virtual_tmr_asc.pdf    virtual_tmr_asc.doc

September 19, 2002: Heavy Ion SET Results for the OMR185 and OMR186 Low Dropout Regulators has been added to the LVDO Regulators Page, Radiation Test Results Section.

September 18, 2002: "A1020B and A1280A Life Test" has been added to the Reliability and FPGA Reliability Pages.  life_test_96

September 15, 2002: Added heavy ion data on the Virtex II, presented at the 2002 MAPLD International Conference to the Xilinx Radiation Data Page  virtex2_swift_mapld02.htm

September 2, 2002: "Lewis Spacecraft Mission Failure Investigation Board Final Report" has been added to the Reports Page, Failure Reports Section,  Lewis and Clark Subsection.  lewis_document.pdf

August 30, 2002: "Destructive Physical Analysis: Xilinx XQVR300-4CB228V (QPRO Virtex 2.5)" added to the FPGA Reliability, Xilinx DPA Page and the Reliability Page.

August 28, 2002: Added the 10th Reconfigurable Architectures Workshop (RAW 2003), April 22, 2003, to the Conferences Page.  10th Reconfigurable Architectures Workshop 2003 (RAW 2003)

August 22, 2002: "Accelerated Life Test for RT54SX and SX-S Wire Bonds" has been added to the FPGA_Reliability and Reliability Pages.

August 11, 2002: Added "Electrical Grounding Architecture for Unmanned Spacecraft" to the General Application Notes Page.   grounding_nasa_hdbk_4001.pdf   grounding_nasa_hdbk_4001.doc

August 7, 2002.  Added National Semiconductor 54AC Drive (A Sample) to the Parts Page.

August 7, 2002: A DPA on RT54SX32S has been added to the FPGA Reliability and Reliability Pages.  dpa_sx32s_t25js001_q20130.pdf    dpa_sx32s_t25js001_q20130.doc

August 3, 2002: Added OLD News #4, "Propagation Delay and Aging" to the OLD News Page.

August 3, 2002: Added Design Checklists, from, "DESIGN CHECKLISTS FOR MICROCIRCUITS, GUIDELINE NO. GD-ED-2203
PREFERRED RELIABILITY PRACTICES, JOHNSON SPACE CENTER"
to the Design, Analysis, and Test Guidelines Page.

August 3, 2002: Added "Actel eX, SX-A and RT54SX-S I/Os" to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Pageantifuse_io_an_july_02.pdf

August 3, 2002: Added "Actel SX-A and RT54SX-S Devices in Hot-Swap and Cold-Sparing Applications" -- updated version -- to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes Pagehot_swap_cold_sparing_july_2002.pdf

August 2, 2002: Added "DC-XA Clipper Graham Mishap Investigation Report Final Report" to the Programmable Reports Main Pagedcx_report.pdf  (Volumes II and III are in hardcopy not yet scanned.)

July 31, 2002: Added the Nonvolatile Memory Technology Symposium 2002 PROGRAM to the Conferences Page.

July 30, 2002: The Soviet Space Challenge has been added to the Russian Space Program Page.

July 22, 2002: Added a new page: Design, Analysis, and Test Guides

July 16, 2002: Added JPL Evolvable Systems to the Adaptive Computing page.

July 10, 2002: "RT54SX tR/tF Experiment" has been added to the SX_SX-A_Application_Notes Page.  rtsx_trtf_report.pdf

July 9, 2002: "Test Methodology for Characterizing the SEE Sensitivity of a Commercial IEEE 1394 Serial Bus (FireWire)" has been added to the Interfaces a nd Standards Page.   seidleck_nsrec_02.ppt

July 8, 2002: The Technical_Program for the 2002 MAPLD International Conference has been released.

July 8, 2002: "Advanced Design: Designing for Reliability" has been added to the Tutorial Page, Minicourse Section.  Reliable_Design_Seminar

July 8, 2002: "Programmable Logic Devices and Architectures" has been added to the Tutorial Page, Minicourse Section.  Architecture_Seminar

July 8, 2002: "BNL May 20th, 2002 Test Results - RT54SX32S Rev 2 and RT54SX72S Rev 1" has been added to the SX-S Radiation Data Page, SEE Section.

sx32s_r2_sx72s_r1_bnl0502.html
sx32s_r2_sx72s_r1_bnl0502.pdf
sx32s_r2_sx72s_r1_bnl0502.doc

July 2, 2002: "DPA-22047 AS8ER128K32Q" has been added to the Memory Reliability and Reliability Pages.  21099-20dpa.pdf

June 28, 2002: Added "AUGER ELECTRON SPECTROSCOPY (AES), SURFACE ANALYSIS REPORT, CEA NUMBER E5723" to the Reliability amd FPGA Reliability Pages.

evans_june_2002_e5723_doc.pdf
evans_june_2002_e5723.doc

evans_june_2002_e5723_ppt.pdf
evans_june_2002_e5723.ppt

June 27, 2002: "Military Product Qualification of RT54SX72S (rev. 1) and RT54SX32S (rev. 2) with MEC 0.25 µm Technology" has been added to the FPGA Reliability and Reliability pages.  rtsx72s_rev1_rtsx32s_rev2_qual_approval.pdf

June 27, 2002: "Military Process Qualification of RT54SX32S for MEC 0.25 Technology" has been added to the FPGA Reliability and Reliability pages.  32s_p03_qual_summary.pdf

June 25, 2002: Added "How Do You Review Someone Else’s VHDL Design?", Presented @ NASA Marshall Space Flight Center to the Tutorials Page, Minicourses Section.

June 24, 2002: Added "Input Transition Times for SX-S FPGAs" to the OLD News Page.

June 21, 2002: Added updated reports, FIB/AES data and analysis, on Au-Al wire bonding for FPGAs to the Reliability and FPGA Reliability (SX, SX-S DPA Section) Pages.  q20024fa_camicro_sorce_tp_revc2.pdf      q20024fa_camicro_sorce_tp_revc2.doc

June 20, 2002: "RT54SX-S tR/tF Experiment" has been added to the SX_And_SX-S/SX_SX-A_Application_Notes and High Speed and Signal Quality Page.  rtsxs_trtf_report_final.pdf

June 18, 2002: "Dynamic Burn-In of 1280ARPQG for the Hubble Space Telescope" has been added to the FPGA Reliability and Reliability Pages.  hst_sei.htm

June 8, 2002: "Qualification by Test: An Example with Clock Skew" has been added to the Lessons Learned and FPGA Application Notes Pages.  clk_skew_and_qual_by_test.htm

June 7, 2002: "Using Schmitt Triggers for Low Slew-Rate Input" has been added to the SX, SX-A, and SX-S Application Notes PageNote: The application note suggests the use of HCxx logic driving RT54SX-S devices.  At least some HCxx logic devices are not guaranteed to reliably drive RT54SX-S inputs with a 10 ns transition time requirement.  schmitt_trigger.pdf

June 6, 2002: "Failure Analysis Report for the RH1280 CQ172V" to the Reliability Page.  lm_18366rh1280cq172.pdf   Note: This was a case of clock skew, using a high-skew local net, heavily loaded, as a clock.  Reference: N_Clock_Skew.ppt

June 3, 2002: Added "Programmable Logic Device Survey" to the FPGA Reliability Page.   For NASA Civil Servants and contractors.  http://osat-ext.grc.nasa.gov/rmo/plcsurvey/index.html or contact Kalynnda.Berens@grc.nasa.gov

May 23, 2002: Added "21st Digital Avionics Systems Conference," October 27-31, 2002, to the Conferences Page.  21st Digital Avionics Systems Conference

May 20, 2002: Added Summary of Transient Current Data for S/N 42, XQVR300, as a Function of Total Dose to the Xilinx Radiation Page.   transient_esa_2002.htm

May 19, 2002: Added "Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware" to the References: Logic Design Page, Design Guidelines Section.

May 17, 2002: Added "Investigation of DSC Transistor Failures" to the Reliability Page. plague_109.pdf

May 17, 2002: Added updated reports on Au-Al wire bonding for FPGAs to the Reliability and FPGA Reliability (SX, SX-S DPA Section) Pages.

May 16, 2002: Added Technical Reports Servers to the Reports Page.

  1. Langley Technical Reports Server
  2. NASA Technical Report Server
  3. NACA Technical Report Server

May 16, 2002: Added bond pull data and analysis for RT54SX32SCQ256E/0113 to the Reliability and FPGA Reliability (SX, SX-S DPA Section) Pages.  jpl_bond_pull_data.htm

May 14, 2002: Added KSC Advisory on Transistors for "purple plague" to the Reliability Page.   shuttle_plague.pdf   shuttle_plague.doc (limited access).

May 13, 2002: "Summary of NASA GSFC Bond Pull Data" added to the Reliability and FPGA Reliability (SX, SX-S DPA Section) Pages.  bond_pull_data.htm

May 10, 2002: Added updated reports on Au-Al wire bonding for FPGAs to the Reliability and FPGA Reliability (SX, SX-S DPA Section) Pages.

May 8, 2002: Added "Non-Volatile Memory Technology Symposium 2002," Nov. 4-6, 2002, to the Conferences Page.

May 8, 2002: Slides from Actel-NASA GSFC meeting on Au wire bonding added to the Reliability and FPGA Reliability (SX, SX-S DPA Section) Pages.

May 7, 2002: Added "SEU Hardening Techniques for Retargetable, Scalable, Sub-Micron Digital Circuits and Libraries" to the SEU Hardening and References: Radiation Pages.   baze_see_mit_seesymp02.pdf     baze_see_mit_seesymp02.ppt

May 7, 2002: Added "Backside Device Irradiation for Single Event Upset Tests of Advanced Devices" to the References: Radiation, PowerPC, Memory Papers, and Memory Radiation Results Pages.  swift_thin_seesymp02.ppt

May 7, 2002: Added "Single Event Effects Testing of the Intel Pentium III (P3) Microprocessor" to the 386, 486, and Pentium Radiation Page.

May 7, 2002: Added "Heavy ion irradiation of ALTERA APEX FPGAs" to the Altera Radiation Page.  ceschia_sees_seesymp02.ppt

May 6, 2002: Added "A comprehensive method for the evaluation of the sensitivity to SEUs of FPGA-based applications" to the DEI Radiation Page.  velazco_fpga_seesymp02.ppt

May 6, 2002: Added "Hi-Rel Laboratories Report Number FR-32271, RT54SX16-FPGA" to the FPGA Reliability and Reliability pages.   hi-rel_fa_actel_54sx.pdf   hi-rel_fa_actel_54sx.htm

May 3, 2002: Added "An Error Correction Code to Address Neutron Single Event Upsets in Semiconductor Memory" to the General Application Notes, Memory Papers, ProcessorSEU Hardening pages.   jensen_rockwell_seesymp02.ppt

May 2, 2002: "SDRAMs: Can’t Live Without Them, But Can We Live With Them?" added to the Memory Papers Page.  sdram_seesymp02.ppt

May 2, 2002: "Latent Damage From Single-Event Latchup" added to the References: Radiation Page.  becker_latent_seesymp02.pdf    becker_latent_seesymp02.ppt

April 28, 2002: Added titles, author lists, and abstracts from the 2002 IEEE NSREC to appropriate pages.

April 25, 2002: "Signal Terminations for the Silicon Explorer" has been added to the SX and SX-A Application Notes Page.  silicon_explorer_terminations.htm

April 24, 2002: "How Software Errors Contribute to Satellite Failures - Lessons Learned" added to the Lessons Learned Page.

April 22, 2002: "Computing in the Soviet Space Program" added to the Russian Program Page.

April 22, 2002: Added "Single Event Effects of a FLASH-based FPGA" to the Presentations Page.    see02_flash.pdf    see02_flash.ppt

April 19, 2002: Added a new page for Altera Radiation Data.  First entries are two papers to be presented at the 2002 IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference.

April 17, 2002: Added "Radiation Pre-Evaluation of Xilinx FPGA XQVR300" to the Xilinx Radiation Data Page.  esa_qca0109ts_c.pdf

April 17, 2002: Added "Radiation Evaluation of Power-up Behaviour of Xilinx FPGA XQVR300" to the Xilinx Radiation Data Page.   esa_qca0112t_c.pdf

April 16, 2002: Added, "CEO draws quality lessons from design failures" to the Lessons Learned Page.  CEO draws quality lessons from design failures (external link).

April 16, 2002: Added, "Lessons Learned from FPGA Developments" to the Lessons Learned Page.  esa_fpga_001_01-0-0.pdf

April 15, 2002: Added "JPL Common Threads Workshop Summary Report" to the Lessons Learned Page.   d-13776.pdf  (Note: I am trying to get this document approved for general release.  E-mail me for access on a case-by-case basis).

April 12, 2002: Added "NASA's Electronics Research Center (ERC) to the Apollo Guidance Computer and Other Computer History Page.  erc_butrica.htm

April 11, 2002: Added "Retain engineering rights to all designs, analyses, procedures, and test results" to the Lessons Learned PageRetain Engineering Rights

April 8, 2002: Added CQ256 Universal Card for Act 3, RT54SX, and RT54SX-S to the DUT Cards Page.

April 7, 2002: Added the "International HDL Conference and Exhibition" to the Conferences Page.  The International HDL Conference and Exhibition

April 7, 2002: Added "Advanced Avionics Systems for Dependable Computing in Future Space Exploration" to the Avionics Page.

April 7, 2002: Added Actel reliability reports to the FPGA Reliability Page. Actel_Reliability_Q301.pdf   Actel_Reliability_Q401.pdf

April 7, 2002: Added FIT rates over time for Xilinx devices to the FPGA Reliability Page.

April 7, 2002: Added the Xilinx Reliability Report, January 2002, to the FPGA Reliability Page.   Xilinx_Reliability_0102.pdf

April 3, 2002: "Analysis on Bond Quality Concerns for RT54SX16 from GSFC" added to the FPGA Reliability Page.

April 3, 2002: DPA Report, Actel RT54SX16-1CQ208BX3, LDC 0101, 0113.  Added to the FPGA Reliability Page.

April 3, 2002: Follow-on report on intermetallic halos and low bond strength for gold ball bonds in FPGAs.  Added to the FPGA Reliability Page.   The report has been updated with data from additional devices and lot date codes:

April 2, 2002: Destructive Physical Analysis Report on the RT54SX16, D/C 9937, added to the FPGA Reliability Page.  "There were 63 bond failures of less than 3.0 gf on this device."  ball_dpa_2202-38.htm

April 1, 2002: Added the Thirteenth Biennial Single Effects Symposium to the Conferences Page.  April 23-25, 2002.  Thirteenth Biannual Single Event Effects Symposium

March 29, 2002: Add "IBIS Models: Background and Usage" to the High Speed and Signal Quality Page.  actel_ibis_appnote.pdf

March 29, 2002: Power-Up Device Behavior of Actel FPGAs application note added to the FPGA Application Notes Page.  Note that experiments have shown that not all devices will remain in tri-state during the power-on transient and conservative design practices should be used.   actel_power_up_behavior_3_02.pdf

March 26, 2002: DPA Report, Actel RT54SX32S-CQ256E, LDC 0113, T25JSP03 was added to the FPGA Reliability Page.   dpa_sx32s_ ldc0113_t25jsp03.pdf

March 22, 2002: Follow-on report on intermetallic halos and low bond strength for gold ball bonds in FPGAs.  Added to the FPGA Reliability Page.   plague_2.pdf    plague_2.doc

March 22, 2002: Added the "Sixth Annual Workshop on High Performance Embedded Computing," September 24-26, 2002, to the Conferences Page.

March 21, 2002: RT54SX72S Total Dose Experiment - LAN65xx, L/C T25KS005 added to the FPGA - SX-S Radiation Page.   lan65xx_sx72s_t25ks005_tid.htm

March 20, 2002.  Added pictures, data, and analysis for the NASA GSFC Moon rocks.   Rock 001 will be on display at the 2002 MAPLD International Conference, September 10-12.  gsfc_moon_rocks.htm

March 19, 2002: Added new minicourse on SDRAMs to the Tutorial Page.  SDRAM (pdf)   SDRAM (ppt)

March 18, 2002: Added pointer to the radiation test report on the National Semiconductor LM3940 to the LVDO_Regulators Page, Radiation_Test_Results Section.      LM3940.pdf (External link).

March 17, 2002: Added "ASICs ... the website" to the FPGAs and ASICs Applications Notes Page.  ASICs... the website (External link).

March 15, 2002: Update to the "purple plague"report issued by SORCE [see March 8, 2002]: It turns out that this problem found by the Project was the subject of a prior Actel notification letter.  Affected date codes are: 9919, 9931, 9937.  Reference:

March 15, 2002: Added a user notice for HX6256 256K SRAM (TTL) to the User Notes Page.

The 256K SRAM in the 28 lead flat pack does not provide a satisfactory ground connection for operation in TTL mode for the Read conditions listed in datasheet HX6256.   Toggling the NOE pin coincident with an address change could cause the chip to enter oscillation if all of the inputs are toggled together.  HX6256_ttl_notice

March 15, 2002: Added reports from the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel to the Reports Page.

March 14, 2002: Added new design module on "Ground Bounce" to the Tutorial Page.  Ground Bounce (pdf)    Ground Bounce (ppt)

March 14, 2002.  Added DPA information for Xilinx components to the FPGA Reliability Page.

March 8, 2002: Report on lead watermelon striping and characteristics of "purple plaguen RT54S" oX16 devices.  Added to the FPGA Reliability Page.   sx16_plague.pdf

February 25, 2002: RT54SX32S Total Dose Experiment - LAN64xx, L/C T25JS001.  Added to Rad Data/SXS Page;   lan64xx_sx32s_t25js001_tid.htm

February 6, 2002: "NASA: Better Mechanisms Needed for Sharing Lessons Learned," GAO-02-195 (January 30, 2002) added to the Lessons Learned Page.

January 5, 2002: Grand Re-opening.  All of the material hosted at http://rk.gsfc.nasa.gov has been moved to our new host, located at http://klabs.org.  There has been new material added during the last month, some of the pages have been re-organized for faster loading and better organization, and we are doing our best to make this site as easy to use as possible.  If you have any suggestions or need help finding anything, please send me an e-mail at the address below.  I apologize for any inconvenience, rehosting the site was most definitely not my first choice.  And no, it was not fun, either.   -- rk


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