Space Codesign obtains ESA/NAVISP funding for spaceborne GNSS receiver

Space Codesign Systems has received funding from the European Space Agency (ESA) to support the design of a spaceborne GNSS receiver. The company is a provider of an end-to-end automated solution, from high-level application specification to physical board compilation.

The spaceborne receiver will target system-on-chip (SoC) field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). SpaceStudio software by Space Codesign Systems is a development environment that eases the design flow of advanced algorithms targeting FPGA technology without the inherent complexity of FPGA.

In avionic systems, transition from federated avionics architectures to integrated modular avionics (IMA) is observed. IMA architectures provide a shared computing platform, communications, and input/output resource pool that is partitioned by multiple tasks of differing design assurance criticalities. A similar transition is occurring in the world of satellite systems.

“The main objective of the project is to add features to explore different architectures and hardware/software partitions for spaceborne GNSS receivers, such as [for] GPS and Galileo, operating in both low Earth orbits (LEOs) and high Earth orbits (HEOs),” said Guy Bois, founder,  Space Codesign System.

The project will also support the XtratuM Next Generation (XNG) hypervisor for mixed-criticality systems in the virtual platform offered by SpaceStudio, where multiple tasks with different criticality and certification assurance levels are integrated using a shared computing platform.

The funding is under ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (NAVISP) Element 2,  made possible thanks to the Canadian Space Agency’s participation in the NAVISP. NAVISP is an optional program of ESA initiated in 2017 to support the generation and introduction of innovation in various positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) market segments. The main goal of NAVISP is to generate innovative concepts, techniques and systems linked to the highly competitive and evolving global market for PNT technologies. Element 2 continues to demonstrate its relevance, with more than 120 projects incubated so far.