BAE Systems RAD750 and RAD6000 POWER processors flew on Mars Curiosity, Perseverance, the James Webb Space Telescope, and over 200 other space missions. We're open-sourcing this radiation-hardened silicon heritage and making it available for the next generation of spacecraft.
BAE Systems and Freescale built successive generations of radiation-hardened POWER processors for space applications. Each generation was tested to survive the Van Allen belts, deep space cosmic rays, solar particle events, and the extreme temperature cycling of low Earth orbit — then validated in actual missions before being certified for crewed flight.
The RAD6000 was derived from the IBM RS/6000 workstation processor and radiation-hardened by BAE Systems (then Loral Federal Systems). Its silicon-on-insulator process and radiation-hardened cell library gave it immunity to single-event upsets that would corrupt conventional SRAM and flip-flops. The RAD6000 flew on Mars Pathfinder (1997), Mars Spirit and Opportunity (2004), and over 150 other missions. Spirit operated on Mars for over 6 years — well beyond its 90-day design lifetime — with the RAD6000 performing flawlessly throughout.
The RAD750 is the successor to the RAD6000 and the most widely-flown space processor in history. Based on the PowerPC G3 (Apple's iMac CPU), radiation-hardened by BAE Systems through a combination of silicon-on-insulator fabrication, radiation-hardened flip-flops, and triple-module redundancy in critical paths. It delivers 400 MIPS at 200 MHz while surviving 1 Mrad of total ionizing dose. The RAD750 currently controls Mars Curiosity and Perseverance — both rovers are still actively operating — as well as the James Webb Space Telescope, which carries two RAD750s for redundancy. Approximately 200+ RAD750 units have been delivered for flight missions.
The RAD5500 doubles the clock rate of the RAD750 with an enhanced 750FX pipeline and improved memory interface. Targeting next-generation deep space and interplanetary missions where the computational demands of autonomous navigation and science payload processing exceed what the RAD750 can deliver. The PowerPC 750FX core also flew in the Orion spacecraft (NASA Exploration Flight Test-1) on non-rad-hard versions before the full RAD5500 was available, demonstrating the POWER ISA's suitability for crewed spaceflight.
Space Micro's Proton 400k integrates a commercial Freescale P2020 QorIQ processor (dual e500mc POWER cores) with radiation-mitigation techniques including EDAC-protected memories, watchdog recovery, and selective triple-module redundancy — delivering space-qualification at commercial cost. TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) flew a Space Micro board with POWER e500 cores for its science data processing computer, demonstrating that commercial POWER silicon with appropriate mitigation can serve real space missions at dramatically lower cost than full rad-hard ASICs.
Space radiation causes two classes of failures: Total Ionizing Dose (TID) — cumulative radiation degrading transistor characteristics over years — and Single Event Effects (SEE) — cosmic ray strikes that flip individual bits or latch up circuit states. The RAD6000 and RAD750 address both: silicon-on-insulator (SOI) fabrication eliminates latch-up entirely, radiation-hardened flip-flops are immune to single-bit upsets, and the POWER ISA's software-managed cache (no hardware speculative state that needs protecting) simplifies recovery. The result is processors that have operated for 25+ years in deep space — far beyond any design lifetime — with zero SEE-induced failures.
POWER processors didn't just fly in space — they executed the science, navigation, and autonomy algorithms that made these missions successful. When the Perseverance rover drives itself across Mars, it's POWER ISA instructions making every decision.
Both active Mars rovers run RAD750 processors at 200 MHz. Curiosity has operated since August 2012 — over 4,500 Martian days. Perseverance landed in February 2021 and has collected the first samples intended for eventual return to Earth. The POWER core executes autonomous navigation, science target selection, and hazard avoidance algorithms.
JWST carries two RAD750 processors — one primary, one backup — that coordinate the 18-segment gold mirror, fine guidance sensor, and all four science instruments. The telescope operates at L2, 1.5 million km from Earth, where servicing is impossible. POWER ISA reliability was a primary selection criterion.
MRO launched in 2005 and has been in continuous Mars orbit since 2006. Its RAD750 controls the HiRISE camera (the highest-resolution camera ever sent to another planet), CRISM spectrometer, and communications relay for surface missions. Still operational after 20 years.
The first spacecraft to use the RAD6000 for primary mission computing, Deep Space 1 validated ion propulsion and 12 other advanced technologies in 1998-2001. It flew within 2,200 km of Comet Borrelly — the closest cometary flyby in history at the time — with POWER ISA processors executing its autonomous navigation.
Spirit operated for 6.2 years (90-day design life). Opportunity operated for 14.5 years — the longest operational Mars surface mission in history. Both ran RAD6000 processors. The POWER ISA executed every drive command, instrument reading, and uplink/downlink session across the entire operational lifetime.
NASA's TESS satellite, launched in 2018, uses Space Micro's Proton 400k board with Freescale POWER e500mc cores for science data processing. TESS has discovered thousands of exoplanet candidates — its science computer runs POWER ISA at roughly 100× the computational performance of the RAD750 at lower cost.
The space processor market is a near-monopoly. BAE Systems RAD750/5500 and the Microchip LEON family account for the overwhelming majority of deep-space processors. An open-source POWER space core breaks this dependency — and enables a generation of national space programs and commercial missions to build on proven heritage.
The RAD750 architecture has been validated in 200+ actual space missions across the entire solar system. No simulation or ground test can replicate this. An open-source implementation inherits the credibility of that mission record.
Nations building sovereign space programs — India, Brazil, South Korea, UAE — need access to space-grade processors without US ITAR export controls. An open POWER ISA space core, fabricated domestically, removes this dependency entirely.
RAD750 units cost $200,000–$500,000 each. An open-source POWER space core can be fabricated in radiation-tolerant processes at a fraction of that cost — enabling CubeSat and SmallSat missions that can't afford traditional rad-hard ASICs.
Next-generation autonomous spacecraft need more computation for onboard science processing, navigation AI, and real-time instrument response. POWER ISA 3.1 MMA extensions enable neural network inference directly on a flight processor — without a separate GPU or NPU.
Radiation testing data for POWER cores exists across decades of NASA and ESA programs. An open-source implementation enables open radiation test campaigns — sharing single-event effect data across the entire community rather than locking it in vendor NDAs.
Software written for RAD6000 (1997) runs on RAD750 (2001) runs on modern POWER servers. This ISA continuity means mission software developed for open POWER space cores will remain compatible as the hardware scales — a critical advantage for 10+ year mission lifetimes.
These space cores are the reference material — not the final product. The OPF S1 Working Group consolidates the RAD750, RAD6000, and e500 space heritage into a single unified OPF S1 radiation-tolerant core. It then goes through POWER ISA 3.1 update with MMA for autonomous onboard science processing, AI-assisted EDA verification with radiation-corner timing analysis, and tape-out at Intel Foundry, Samsung, or TSMC using radiation-tolerant process variants at 7/5nm.
Work with BAE Systems, NASA, and the POWER ISA community to release synthesisable Verilog implementations of the PowerPC 750 core — the architectural foundation of the RAD750 — under an open license, with radiation-hardening documentation.
Update the PowerPC 750 core to implement POWER ISA 3.1, adding MMA extensions for onboard AI/science processing, a 64-bit capable ABI, and improved cache/prefetch — while preserving full compatibility with existing space flight software stacks.
Run the updated space core through complete EDA flows — formal verification, radiation-corner timing analysis, and single-event effects simulation — then tape out in a radiation-tolerant process suitable for space missions.
Whether you're a national space agency, a commercial satellite operator, a university CubeSat program, or a sovereign space initiative, POWER's space heritage offers a path to open, proven, radiation-tolerant silicon. Let's fly together.
