Members from the five partners of the METASAT project consortium, coordinated by the BSC, met in Barcelona to discuss the project’s status and to share its latest developments.
The European-funded METASAT project met halfway through the project to share developments in their mission to transform satellite technology through reliable on-board software technology. The BSC-CNS-hosted face-to-face meeting on 10 June 2024 allowed the consortium to share its latest achievements and discuss the next steps.
Over the past eighteen months, the consortium has made remarkable advances in satellite technology, emphasizing creating efficient, scalable and reliable systems. By leveraging innovative solutions and promoting cross-sector collaboration, the project has achieved several critical milestones poised to redefine satellite-based applications.
Major achievements:
- Update of the METASAT Hardware and Software Platform: The latest NOEL-V RISC-V space processor and Vortex GPU, developed by the BSC, have been integrated into the METASAT hardware platform. This integration enables the execution of GPU workloads on the FPGA prototype, on top of the fentISS XtratuM hypervisor.
- Refinement of the METASAT Model-based design and integration toolchain: The Model-based design toolchain for modelling and code generation has been specifically tailored for the METASAT platform.
- Use Case Status: The METASAT use cases of satellite software are in an advanced implementation state.
- Virtualization Support: The XtratuM/NG hypervisor now supports the METASAT HW Platform, including the SPARROW HW Accelerator. The RTEMS 6 SPM Kernel has been ported to this hypervisor from fentiSS, incorporating a new feature that allows system partitions to control the memory permissions of other partitions.
The METASAT project continues to be dedicated to reducing the time and cost associated with developing new satellite technology systems, drawing on the expertise of its diverse consortium and the support of the European Commission. The project will focus on refining its technologies further, conducting testing, and preparing to deploy its solutions in operational satellite missions.
More information about the METASAT Project and its ongoing developments can be found in the following links: