A Complementary MOS Spacecraft Data Handling System

Abstract

An on-board data handling system for a 1970 earth orbiting spacecraft has been designed and is currently being fabricated using medium scale integration, complementary MOS arrays. This arrangement which interfaces with the spacecraft's cosmic ray experiment will essentially be an engineering experiment. The organization can be divided into several distinct parts: a 512 word by 16 bit memory, a logarithmic data compressor, 5 rate counter/ registers, an address switcher, and a control logic block. The system contains random access 64 bit memory arrays, 8-bit preset counters, and 8-bit parallel load shift registers. The smallest of these arrays contains over 200 active devices. The rest of the scheme is composed of multi-input nand and nor arrays, D type flip-flops, and 7 stage binary ripple counters. Without these MSI arrays the part count would have exceeded 1000, and would require more than one watt of power compared to the complementary arrangement which requires less than 80 milliwatts.