NASA partners with Microchip to build next-generation spaceflight chips with 100x the power of current offerings — chip designed to withstand radiation for extended missions on the Moon and Mars

NASA and Microchip Technology are partnering to build a next-generation spaceflight system-on-a-chip for the High-Performance Spaceflight Computing program.

The new chip is designed to deliver about 100 times the computing power of today’s space processors, with radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant versions.

The goal is to boost spacecraft autonomy, reliability, and power efficiency for future Moon, Mars, and deep-space missions.

NASA says the scalable architecture could also benefit Earth-based uses such as drones, medical devices, and communications.