Designing an embedded computing system for space requires a solution that withstands the vibrations of liftoff and handles the extreme temperatures, background radiation, and other harsh conditions of space. VITA 78 SpaceVPX leverages the VITA 65 OpenVPX Backplane standard for space-capable systems, giving top priority to reliability. In VITA 78, every connection is point-to-point; there are no buses in the system, limiting the propagation of failures through many components. In addition, modules and connections between modules are redundant, deriving in systems with no single points of failure.
By leveraging the SpaceVPX standard, Novo is designing modular components that can be combined to create systems according to mission requirements, ranging from fully redundant to single-threaded “bare minimum” systems. In addition to the VITA 78 (SpaceVPX) standard, Novo’s products incorporate the VITA 57 (FMC) specification, providing its modules with different I/O capabilities. These FMC mezzanine cards offer the flexibility to add mission-specific hardware to the system; constraining custom engineering to the mezzanine card.  The FMC can also be used for more complex functionalities to provide an extra layer of configurability to the system, implementing functions such as mass storage and digitization. ​This modular architecture promotes the reuse of components across subsystems reducing mission risk, cost, and development time. The data throughput of the selected standards supports modern high-bandwidth payloads such as high-resolution cameras, communication systems, and synthetic-aperture radars. This architecture also favors a high level of integration of payload and avionics subsystems enabling high levels of reliability and low SWaP.​
In the applications presented below, we discuss three case studies: a payload subsystem, an avionics subsystem, and a subsystem combining both avionics and payload in the same ​mechanical box. In these case studies, we use the components developed by Novo Space:
  • SpaceVPX CPU Board with HPC FMC slot (Controller Profile)
  • SpaceVPX Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Board with HPC FMC slot (Payload Profile)
  • SpaceVPX Switch Board (Switch Profile, under development)
  • FMC Mass Memory (MM)
  • FMC 4xADC/4xDAC (ADC/DAC, under development)
  • Custom IO Board
  • Custom Backplane
The SpaceVPX boards and the FMC mezzanine cards are represented using blue and green circles, respectively. Blue bubbles with a heavy dark outer line represent SpaceVPX CPUs and blue bubbles without the outer line represent SpaceVPX DSPs.
SpaceVPX Board and FMC Mezzanine Card
Please select one of the subsystems below to learn more about how different applications can be implemented using our products.
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