The Perseverance rover runs on ancient processors, which, however, have one major difference.
If you look at the spectacular videos that the new Mars rover has sent to Earth, you might think that the robot is built with futuristic technology that puts everything else in the shade.
It would hardly occur to anyone that the software in the Perseverance rover is powered by 23-year-old processors. But that is exactly the case.
23 year old chip
The Mars rover actually runs on the same processors as the iMac G3 from 1998. The PowerPC 750 chip is a single-core processor running at 233 MHz. The low performance of the chip is obviously sufficient for the applications of the Perseverance rover.
However, the PowerPC 750 is considered to be particularly efficient because it can predict the processes to be processed in the future quite accurately. The so-called “Dynamic Branch Prediction” increases efficiency.
Proessor with radiation protection
The chip that sits in the Mars rover, however, is not completely identical to the one with the iMac G3. Namely, the processor is manufactured by BAE Systems and is called the RAD750. The name also indicates the specialty of the chip.
Because so that the electronic parts can travel through the galaxy without damage and still function on Mars, they have to be equipped with radiation protection. The components also have to be prepared for the huge temperature differences on the Red Planet.
“It's not just about speed”
For example, the RAD750 processors can withstand 200,000 to 1,000,000 rads and withstand temperatures between -55 and +125 degrees Celsius. Such a processor costs around $ 200,000, as NewScientist writes.
NASA's Orion capsule is also equipped with the same RAD750 chips. “It's not just about speed,” said NASA scientist Matt Lemke at the start of the Orion program in 2014. “It's more about robustness and reliability. We have to make sure that the processor always works.”
