Spaceos-Unknown Chinese spacecraft operating system, future civilian

Speaking of Microsoft's Windows, Apple's Mac OS and Google's Android, I believe everyone is not unfamiliar, they are operating systems, that is, the various resources of the Computer Management software, is the soul of the computer can run, some of the United States spacecraft with the VxWorks operating system. But if you ask what operating system the computers on our spacecraft use, perhaps very few people know ...

In fact, China Aerospace Technology Group Five Institute since 2001 began to develop the on-board computer-specific operating system--spaceos, and the first flight in 2006 successful. The Lunar New Moon Third mission Control computer uses the upgraded and improved second generation on-board computer operating system SpaceOS2. The system's debut application has attracted a lot of attention.

Although similar to the ordinary home operating system design principles, but the "God" operating system to adapt to the harsh space environment, security, reliability and other requirements are much harsher.

The ground uses the computer to crash may reboot, the broken can also change the new, but the airplane computer turns on the machine to be able to shut down or restarts normally. Satellites that run longer on orbit can live up to more than 10 years, which means that computer programs run for more than 10 years without problems.

More importantly, "doctrine" is dangerous for aerospace, a key area of national security. and to develop their own operating system, the relevant core technology abroad tight blockade, want to borrow also is not possible.

Before the on-board computer operation system is put into use, Chinese satellites usually use the program control method to complete the instruction. This "fool" type of operation mode is very simple, but also very mechanical, it requires technicians on the ground to design a satellite to do every action, strictly according to the timing of the program. Figuratively speaking, that is, if the task of setting up a satellite for "eat-drink-sleep", the satellite can only follow this sequence in order to repeat the action, want to drink water after eating is not done.

Because the orbit of the satellite is relatively closed and determined, the program control, though cumbersome, can meet the requirements of the task. However, with the more and more complicated tasks in our country, more and more requests for computer software management are put forward.

It is imperative to develop China's own on-board computer operating system. Without reference, began to grope slowly from zero. Independent innovation has become the only way in front of the research and development team.

2006, SpaceOS1 successfully operated on the rails. At that time, the operating system features simple, only to achieve a variety of resource management and task scheduling, but there is no communication between tasks and dynamic memory management and other more complex functions.

3 years later, the Chang ' e third project, the patrol to achieve the moon surface walking. Compared with the satellite orbit, the moon is an open space with poor environment, many uncertainties and complicated control. This task is highly demanding for spacecraft intelligence and autonomy, which is the perfect location for operating systems.

At this time the simple function of the SpaceOS1 has been unable to meet the task requirements, researchers began to carry out the second generation of product research. After 2 years of research and development, SPACEOS2 officially launched, in many aspects have achieved a qualitative leap, and successfully applied to the Chang ' e Third Patrol Center control computer.

In the task scheduling and memory management, SPACEOS2 can manage dozens of tasks at the same time, compared with the original 5 tasks, improve a level, and can be fast and orderly storage. When the lunar rover is walking on the moon, it is necessary to keep filming the lunar environment while keeping and processing the information quickly. If you suddenly encounter a hole, the operating system must be in the shortest possible time to make judgments and reactions, otherwise it is possible to fall into the pit. At present, the design of memory management methods and scheduling methods, in terms of function and efficiency, can be compared with the most advanced similar products in the world.

And if we talk about the most characteristic and competitive technology, we have to mention three-machine fault tolerance. The general satellite will have two computers cold backup, one work when the other does not work, if the work of the computer failure or problem, immediately switch to another. However, in the process of switching, there will inevitably be some due to computer startup and other second-level time lag. To achieve true seamless switching, Chang ' e third for the first time to achieve a three-machine hot backup, that is, three computers at the same time, to deal with the same task, it is possible that one of the computer to give the calculation result is wrong, then three machine fault tolerance will find which computer is wrong, and finally give the correct results.

From a dual-machine cold backup to a three-machine hot backup, it seems that only a single computer is added, but the difficulty and workload is exponential growth. The researchers say that the pressure comes from knowing what goals to achieve, but without having a clue how to do it. At that time the dream was thinking about these problems, some difficulties even in the dream to conquer.

At present, this young team of only more than 10 people is working on SpaceOS3 research and development, the third generation of products will be more advanced and cutting-edge technology.

For example, the development of high-performance multi-core computers, so that the speed of operation and processing capacity greatly improved, as well as the current operating system in the field of the most cutting-edge technology-formal verification, from the modeling and certification point of view to verify the correctness of the design domain software and hardware, if this technology to break through, Will change aerospace currently through a large number of tests to verify the correctness of the design method, fundamentally ensure that the design error-free and high reliability.

When asked about the problem, researchers said the aerospace operating system technology itself could be converted to civilian use. However, due to the characteristics of aerospace products and personalized customization, not enough product and universal, from the promotion of mature civilian products still have a certain distance.

At present, the Spaceos operating system is considering the application of space system, and will be gradually extended to other fields in the future. Perhaps one day, each of us on the phone, can use the "China Aerospace" brand operating system.