Sandia National Labs SA3000 8085 CPU
3 days ago
- #Cold War Technology
- #Space and Defense Computing
- #Radiation-Hardened Electronics
- Sandia National Labs developed the SA3000, a radiation-hardened version of the Intel 8085 CPU, for use in harsh environments like space missions and nuclear weapons, starting in the late 1970s.
- The SA3000 was fabricated on a 3-micron CMOS process with 4-inch wafers, featuring 18,000 transistors (vs. the original 8085's 6,500) and operated at 4.5-11V to mitigate radiation effects, exceeding design goals by handling up to 3×10^6 rads with a 40% performance drop.
- It was used in the W88 nuclear warhead on Trident II missiles for altitude and fuzing calculations, and also in space applications like the CRRES satellite, with Harris commercializing similar versions (HS1-80C85RH and HS9-80C85RH) in 1990.
- Sandia's fab capabilities evolved from 2-inch wafers on 10-micron processes in 1978 to support radiation-hardened ICs, including over 50,000 chips for the Galileo probe, but production slowed after Allied Signal took over fab operations in the mid-1980s.