Photo: MerlinTPS

MerlinTPS has partnered with Bluespec to address the need for GNSS augmentation and backup technology as satellites continue to face new challenges, including wartime contested space as well as increased costs to produce and maintain satellites.

Under the partnership, MerlinTPS will develop its platform to support the expansion of PNT security capabilities by using existing signals of opportunity on the ground designed to combat jamming and spoofing.

“With our verification and validation-centric RISC-V solutions, MerlinTPS can develop customized solutions in a matter of weeks, allowing it to deliver highly differentiated products with minimal project and schedule risk,” said Charlie Hauck, CEO of Bluespec.

By implementing Bluespec’s RISC-V processors in Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), MerlinTPS can quickly modify, generate and load new code onto FPGAs. This allows for hardware reuse, avoiding the need to build custom hardware for each task.

However, MerlinTPS can easily make customizations to Bluespec’s RISC-V soft processor cores — adding custom instructions designed to accelerate specific workloads — when needed. MerlinTPS plans to add artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to the platform.