Intel Corp., one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies, has spent the past several years quietly developing a processor for satellites as the company looks to tap growing demand for onboard artificial intelligence and data processing in a market long served by specialized aerospace chip makers.
The processor, still undergoing testing, is designed for resilient, high-power performance in space — an environment too harsh and unforgiving for most hardware.
In an interview, Sean O’Neill, deputy director of product development at Intel Government Technologies, said the chip is expected to be initially available to customers by the end of the year. Intel Government Technologies, the business unit focused on the federal market, posted a fact sheet in July on the new processor, called Starfire.
Intel has not disclosed how much it spent developing Starfire, but O’Neill said the work was funded internally, underscoring the company’s belief that space computing is becoming a market worth pursuing. “We have skin in the game,” he said.
The company concluded that the United States government’s growing emphasis on space as a critical domain of national security, coupled with the expansion of commercial satellite constellations, has created a market large enough to justify adapting commercial semiconductor technology for orbit, said O’Neill.
