In the last 11 years, a lot has changed in this field. That's to be expected in a technology that is driven by Moore's Law, where complexity doubles every 18 months or so. So we have a factor of 7 or so, but actually the rate of change is increasing.Where we are today is machines built with multiple cores on one chip, each core being a complete computer. The same communication schemes discussed in this book are used, with the same trade-off's, shared memory or communication channel....

Pronounced RISK-Five, RISC-V is the latest implementation of the MIPS architecture, in an open source configuration. The project kicked off in 2010 at the University of California, Berkeley.It had been announced in 2018. Multiple companies now offer RISC-V chips, and the architecture is compatible with several FPGA's. The RISC-V architecture is making inroads on the popular ARM embedded architecture.There have been numerous space missions using the MIPS architecture. One of...

I am assuming a basic knowledge of computer architecture, but most of what you need to know is also included. The details of computer math are presented in an appendix. I have collected together a representative list of reference books and interesting titles in the bibliography. In a quickly evolving field such as embedded computers, new and relevant material is emerging all the time. This book represents a current snapshot of the field. The plan is to update the material at reasonable int...

This book traces the history and technology of several Irons works in pre-colonial Maryland, starting with the Colony of Maryland. The collected information is the result of a long chain of research by tireless researchers in dingy colonial era archives, and in dismal swamps.It tell the story of Richard Snowden, coming to the Colony of Maryland as an endentured servant, and eventually building a mansion for himself and all of his daughters.

This book documents the development of missile and spacecraft guidance computers from the earliest efforts to the current Space Station and satellite onboard systems. This book developed from the author's presentation at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in 2009 for the Workshop on Flight Software. The second and third editions were expanded with new material and references. The fourth edition updated the material to the state of the art in 2014, with discussions of...

This book covers the topic of Telescopes in Space. Observation of the night sky's started way before Civilization. Early humans looked at all the lights in the sky, saw that some moved, and some were fixed. What did it all mean?The initial assumption was that the Earth was the center of the Universe, and everything traveled around it. But, by observations, some “heavenly bodies” wander about in the sky, and increasingly complex theories were developed to address this. Later, when t...

The ARM processor has come a long way from an obscure British microprocessor of the 1980's to being the dominant basis for the current generation of smart phones, and tablet computers, as well as its use in space They are also in television set-top boxes, routers, and embedded applications. The ARM architecture units represent the highest volume of 32-bit processors being shipped, as of this writing.ARM's can be found on space missions, most likely in Cubesats, but also on the ISS....

This book discusses the subject of lava tubes on Earth, the Moon and Mars, and their potential applications for habitats and planetary settlements. To implement this, we need robotic explorers that can scout the lava tubes. This book will discuss an approach for that, using Cube-Xs, which are standardized architectures, based on the Cubesat model. Lava tubes are primary caves, not formed from the erosion of softer rock. We will discuss autonomous exploration of the Lava tubes by multiple u...

In 1983, the British company Acorn Computers Ltd. was shopping for a new 16-bit processor to replace the 8-bit Mostek 6502 that they were then using. Some say that Acorn was rejected by Intel, others say that Acorn didn’t like either the Intel 80286 or the Motorola MC 68000. In any case, the company decided to develop its own processor called the Acorn RISC Machine, or ARM. The company had been started in Cambridge, UK, in 1978. The name Acorn was supposed to suggest expandability and grow...

This book discusses the application of Cubesats in the exploration of our solar systems. Including the Sun, the eight primary planets and the minor planet Pluto, many moons, the asteroid belt, comets, the ring systems, the Centaurs, there is a lot to explore. Although the planets (and Pluto) have been visited by spacecraft, Earth's moon has been somewhat explored, and many of the other planets' moons have been imaged, there is a lot of “filling in the blanks” to be done. We examine the app...

The Nineteenth Century saw a period of rapid technology development, as steam power was applied to many aspects of manufacturing and transportation. People’s lives became better, old things could be done more cheaply or faster, and new things were enabled. At the same time, machinery displaced jobs and switched the economy from a focus on agriculture to a new focus on manufacturing. A new age was being born, and birth involves pain, disruption, and change. The discovery of copious amounts ...

This book focuses on the early production of iron, and the later production of derivative products such as locomotives at Mount Savage, Maryland. Mount Savage was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. What made this possible was the juxtaposition of natural resources (iron ore, coal, and fire clay), availability of a workforce, and the relative ease of transportation to the coast. Nearby Cumberland had the B&O railroad from Baltimore, and the C&O Canal from Ge...