RTX2010

RTX 2010

General information
Launched	1988 (1988)
Common manufacturer(s)	Intersil
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	8 MHz
Data width	8 and 16
Address width	20

The RTX2010, manufactured by Intersil, is a radiation hardened stack machine microprocessor which has been used in numerous spacecraft.

Characteristics

Block diagram of the Harris RTX 2000 processor

It is a two-stack machine, each stack 256 words deep, that supports direct execution of Forth. Subroutine calls and returns only take one processor cycle and it also has a very low and consistent interrupt latency of only four processor cycles, which lends it well to realtime applications.

History

In 1983, Chuck Moore implemented a processor for his programming language Forth as a gate array. As Forth can be considered a dual stack virtual machine, he made the processor, Novix N4000 (later renamed NC4016), as a dual-stack machine. In 1988, an improved processor was sold to Harris Semiconductor, who marketed it for space applications as the RTX2000.

Example spacecraft that use the RTX2010

• Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)
• NEAR/Shoemaker
• TIMED
• Rosetta's lander - Philae

External links

• "HS-RTX2010RH". Intersil. Archived from the original on 2011-06-15. Retrieved 2009-02-11. Intersil's product page.
• "HS-RTX2010RH Data Sheet" (PDF). Intersil. March 2000. 3961.3.
• Rash, James. "Space-Related Applications of Forth". NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Archived from the original on 2011-02-04.

• Hand, Tom. "The Harris RTX2000 Microcontroller" (PDF). The Journal of Forth Application and Research. 6 (1): 5–13. ISSN 0738-2022. Retrieved 2013-08-12.

• Koopman, Philip (1989). "4.5 Architecture of the Harris RTX 2000". Stack Computers: the new wave. Ellis Horwood. ISBN 978-0138379230. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
• Koopman, P.; Schuldt, M. (2018) [1997]. "RTX2000 Simulator: Linux port of MSDOS original". GitHub. while loading an image of Rick VanNorman's AppForth.