RTX2010

Short description: Microprocessor by Intersil

RTX 2010

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

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. http://www.intersil.com/products/deviceinfo.asp?pn=HS-RTX2010RH.  Intersil's product page.
• "HS-RTX2010RH Data Sheet". Intersil. March 2000. https://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/intersil_fn3961.pdf. 
• Rash, James. "Space-Related Applications of Forth". NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. http://forth.gsfc.nasa.gov/. 

• Hand, Tom. "The Harris RTX2000 Microcontroller". The Journal of Forth Application and Research 6 (1): 5–13. ISSN 0738-2022. http://soton.mpeforth.com/flag/jfar/vol6/no1/article1.pdf. 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. http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/stack_computers/sec4_5.html. Retrieved 2016-04-16. 
• Koopman, P.; Schuldt, M. (2018). "RTX2000 Simulator: Linux port of MSDOS original". GitHub. https://github.com/mschuldt/rtx2000_simulator. "while loading an image of Rick VanNorman's AppForth."