China sent its Loongson processors into space – a cloud will be launched at the Tiangong orbital station

On November 15, 2024, the Tianzhou-8 cargo ship, among other things, delivered the Star Eye module to the Chinese Tiangong space station. This is a computing system based on Chinese Loongson processors, which will deploy two cloud platforms at the station and will be used to identify objects in the Earth remote sensing system. The system on Loongson will also be tested for radiation resistance, which will pave the way for it into space.

Image source: Loongson

Computer power in space is growing at an impressive rate, as more and more information needs to be processed on board satellites and stations. On-board computers on satellites are equipped with the ability to perform initial and sometimes in-depth processing of collected data.

As for the stations, a new trend has been to arm them with machine learning programs and, in the future, advanced artificial intelligence, which could become an operational consultant for the crew in many situations. In particular, AI modules were delivered to the ISS in the form of HPE platforms. Obviously, something similar will also be deployed at the Chinese station, and Loongson processors will become an acceptable alternative to Intel and AMD processors.

The Star Eye module on Loongson processors is organized for independent identification of ground objects in the optical and radio range. The system is connected and being tested. It is not specified which Loongson processors were sent to the station. Next year or later, the station will be expanded with an orbiting telescope. The option of expanding the station after 2026 with another scientific module is being considered. Increasing the performance of the station’s on-board computers under these conditions would be useful. Now we can almost certainly expect that these will be platforms based on Loongson processors.