2009 R&D 100 Winner
A virtual or software-defined radio is modified by changing software, not by changing hardware. The TeraOps Software Radio: Supercomputing Power for Space Applications, developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M., not only moves the concept of software radio into space, it also delivers a system built with off-the-shelf commercial products that are adapted for use in space, saving costs associated with fabricating custom-developed components.
To select the hardware components, Los Alamos researchers used their COTS-in-Space, (commercial off-the-shelf) concept, testing electronic COTS products for their ability to resist radiation damage and withstand the hard launch and operating environments associated with space travel. The TeraOps Software Radio uses high-level languages to program the software. Despite the sophistication of the underlying hardware, the developers say that the languages are easy to use and are flexible enough to ensure that the latest innovations in software are incorporated into high-performance hardware.
The 14-pound radio performs 40 billion operations per watt of power, has 50 MHz of bandwidth, 16 bits of dynamic range, and 1 TeraOps of supercomputing power.
Technology
Software radio
Developer
Los Alamos National Laboratory
