A new approach to provide high-reliability data systems without using space-qualified electronic components

This paper describes the present situation and the expected trends with regard to the availability of electronic components, their quality levels, technology trends and sensitivity to the space environment. Many recognized vendors have already discontinued their MIL production line and state of the art components will in many cases not be offered in this quality level because of the shrinking market.It becomes therefore obvious that new methods need to be considered “How to build reliable Data Systems for space applications without High-Rel parts”. One of the most promising approaches is the identification, masking and suppression of faults by developing fault-tolerant computer systems which is described in this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]