Versatile architectures for onboard payload signal processing

This thesis describes a system-on-chip (SoC) architecture for future space mis- sions. The SoC market for deep-space missions develops slowly and is limited in features compared to the market of consumer electronics. Where consumers of- ten cannot keep up with the features which are offered to them and sometimes even question the need for some of the options that electronics offer them, com- puter architectures for deep-space missions should fulfill different needs. Space is a harsh environment which requires SoCs to be shielded from radiation by hardening techniques. The missions often have a very long life-cycle: it can take more than fifteen years from the early planning stages to decommissioning of a satellite platform. The harsh environment, long lifetime and no possibility to change the hardware after launch together with the fact that mass and energy are constrained make architecture development for space more challenging than for consumer electronics.