United States · Radiation-tolerant spaceflight processor development
Microchip PIC64-HPSC spaceflight processor
This project focuses on radiation-tolerant spaceflight processor development.
Microchip and NASA JPL are developing the PIC64-HPSC processor family for future space missions. NASA reported ground testing in May 2026, and Microchip reported early radiation-characterization results and customer silicon evaluations on October 27. This is enabling processor development, with no specific installed spacecraft or completed flight qualification established by those dated accounts. EarthTraq's separate proposed testbed has not confirmed a final processor choice.
Microchip Technology / NASA JPL · Operational silicon and early radiation characterization
Scope: Enabling research · Named enabling processor development, without a defined shared orbital service platform.
Up to 1 TFLOP/s (bfloat16)PlannedPIC64-HPSC all-eight-application-core vector matrix-multiply product ratingEvidence & scope
Published product-design rating, not achieved orbital throughput. As-of is this review date. PDF prints revision10/24, DS00005391D. Arithmetic format and eight-core workload boundary retained. bfloat16 arithmetic, distinct from IEEE half precision.
Up to 2 TOPS INT8PlannedPIC64-HPSC all-eight-application-core vector matrix-multiply product ratingEvidence & scope
Published product-design rating, not achieved orbital throughput. As-of is this review date. PDF prints revision10/24, DS00005391D. Arithmetic format and eight-core workload boundary retained. INT8 arithmetic.
Figures retain their disclosed units and scope. Launched hardware does not establish demonstrated performance; targets may change. Not disclosed means no figure in the reviewed sources.
Buyer: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) · Program: NASA
Contract awarded
Architect, design and deliver the next-generation HPSC processor under a USD50 million firm-fixed-price development contract
Original three-year development target is historical. Additional Microchip R&D contribution is undisclosed. Contract revenue is recorded here as procurement, not duplicated as a grant or financing transaction.
USD 50,000,000 · Firm-fixed-price development contract
Announced 15 Aug 2022 · Evidence checked 4 Nov 2026
Publish final qualification results and named mission-specific installations, preserving variant and test conditions
Manual review with evidence gaps 4 Nov 2026. Compared issuer, NASA and product brochure. Added format-specific eight-core ratings, DDR interface limits, internal link rates and separate ambient/junction temperature boundaries. Qualification chronology and installed mission configuration remain unresolved. Relative benchmarks are held. Primary body last observed not available. Source monitoring: ongoing. Source collection and substantive profile review are separate checks. Plans and dates may change.
Final qualification chronology: undated product page labels Radiation Certified while October27 release describes early characterization. Named flight installations remain unverified.
Achieved workload-specific arithmetic throughput beyond published product ratings
Installed RAM/storage, numerical power and mission thermal implementation
Full reports and operating conditions behind early radiation results
Project updates
Verified announcements and milestones linked to this project, newest first.
