The country's most well-equipped government agencies and companies have begun focusing their energies to develop the next generation of space-based computing systems: the Pentium computer.
Yes, the same computer you're probably working on right now.
While it is commonly believed that "space age" computer systems are worlds ahead of what consumer technology offers, there is actually quite a lag between the two -- the other way around.
The Pentium, for instance, which was introduced to the public by Intel in 1993, probably won't be used in a satellite until 2003.
That's because the environment in space is completely unfriendly to computers. Radiation, which is blocked from Earth by the atmosphere, flows freely across space, disrupting circuits and driving them haywire.
But through a process called radiation hardening, computers can be built to operate in high radiation environments.
Yesterday, Sandia National Laboratories announced it had given a $1 million contract to Maxwell Technologies to develop a radiation hardened Pentium-powered computer board.
The board would be close to seven times as powerful as today's space-based systems, according to Maxwell, a San Diego-based firm that designs and develops products for the space industry.
The new strength of this and other next-generation radiation hardened computers -- a PowerPC version is also in development by others -- could significantly increase the complexity of the satellites and rockets.
There's also a military aspect to the development, according to Sandia, whose scientists design components for the country's nuclear weapons. Some radiation hardened computers -- though not the new Pentium board -- can operate even in the midst of a nuclear blast.
The development of the computer board is also funded in part by the National Reconnaissance Office -- which builds and operates the country's spy satellites -- the Air Force Research Lab, NASA, and the Department of Energy, which oversees the Sandia laboratory.
The lag between home-use and space-based technology is no surprise, according to the Intel Corporation, which licensed the Pentium chip to the government free-of-charge for what it termed "patriotic duty."
It's unfair "to compare the processing power on a chip to the complex inter-support system of computers that were used to, say, launch the first space shuttles," says Intel spokesman Seth Walker.
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