1995 to 2000 Digital Processor Capacity Growth
Market flexibility-- Satellite operators can adjust or restructure business plans and adapt to shifting markets and user patterns by reconfiguring the payload on orbit. For example, it's possible to change overnight from a point-to-point to a broadcasting or multicasting application. DSP can deliver last-mile or next-to-last mile services without expensive ground equipment.
Performance to match future demands--BSS' DSP technology outpaces competitors by 2 to 5 years, offering the first flexible DSP systems with more than 10 Gbps throughput, 7-million-gate ASICs, and 50,000 GigaOperations per second.
Higher profit potential--Dramatically increased revenue-generating bandwidth and reliability with drastically reduced complexity, power consumption, and weight.
Resource efficiency--Optimum spectrum and channel bandwidth allocation and vastly higher throughput from nearly unlimited frequency reuse--up to 512 times to date.
Maximum producibility--Designing for automated assembly with pre-tested parts and modular plug-in slices ensures assembly speed and quality. Automated built-in self-test (BIST) from ASIC through subsystem levels improves manufacturing efficiency and adds reliability. BIST also offers precise on-orbit systems diagnosis.
Inherent stability--No tuning or age degradation over life, radiation resistant.
Available as a payload alone or as part of a satellite system--Customers can select from a multitude of processing functions to create their ideal payload.
| Four Generations of Digital Signal Processors | |||
Generation 1  100 ASICs 15,000 gates per ASIC 8 MHz clock rate |
Generation 2  150,000 gates per ASIC 40 MHz clock rate Plug-in slices Built-in test |
Generation 3  2.7 million gates per ASIC 80 MHz clock rate Built-in self-test Commercial ASIC technology |
Generation 4  7.1 million gates per ASIC 180 MHz clock rate Built-in self-test on orbit Commercial ASIC technology |