Rapid Prototyping of Application-Specific Signal Processors (RASSP) In-Progress Report

The goal of the DARPA/Tri-Service-sponsored Rapid Prototyping of Application-Specific Signal Processors (RASSP) program is to reduce the cost and time to develop and manufacture signal processors by at least a factor of four. Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories' (ATL) approach to reaching this goal is based on three thrusts: methodology, model-year architecture, and infrastructure (enterprise). The Advanced Technology Laboratories' RASSP team—composed of an alliance of companies—implemented the first baseline RASSP system, which advances today's state-of-the-art by a factor of >2X. The Advanced Technology Laboratories' RASSP team used the methodology and tools to demonstrate cost and design-cycle improvements on the benchmark virtual proto-type, and developed a hardware/software system that demonstrated first-pass success. Additional developments underway will provide further benefits and will demonstrate 4X improvements in cost and time to market. This paper updates the team's progress halfway through the program, and highlights the impact of using the RASSP concepts on the design of a SAR processor, a Navy standard processor upgrade, and a CNI application.