Prototype Architecture for a VLSI Level Zero Processing System

Abstract

While the complete process of preparing telemetry data for delivery to NASA's customers requires a number of steps or levels (level 0,1,2...etc.), the initial processing, generally referred to as Level Zero Processing (LZP), poses a real technical challenge for NASA in the 1990s Space Station Freedom era. This challenge is the result of requirements to provide real-time or near real-time LZP products at rates up to 150 Mbps. In addition, increased use of sophisticated data formats places even more demand on NASA's future ground telemetry data systems. A new high speed Level Zero Processing system approach has been proposed for the Space Station Information System. By using a new processing algorithm, the complexity of database management necessary for reconstructing payload data streams has been significantly reduced. This new approach is based on the state-of-art distributed real-time processing and VLSI hardware systems and offers potential processing rates up to 150 Mbits per second (Mbps).