![](\"http:\/\/www.esa.int\/var\/esa\/storage\/images\/esa_multimedia\/images\/2016\/12\/gr740_next-generation_microprocessor\/16561465-1-eng-GB\/GR740_next-generation_microprocessor_small.jpg\")
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\nA close-up of the next-generation microprocessor that will serve a wide variety of future space missions.\n<\/p>\n
\nStandard terrestrial chips wouldn\u2019t last very long in orbit under the harsh blast of space radiation. So ESA has had a long history of working with industry<\/a> on specially \u2018rad-hardened\u2019 designs for space.\n<\/p>\n \nThis GR740 microprocessor, developed by Cobham Gaisler<\/a> in Sweden and manufactured by France-based STMicroelectronics<\/a>, is a quadcore design combining four embedded LEON4 cores. The LEON4 is the latest member of a series of chips that began with the LEON2-FT, developed at ESA from the second half of the 1990s.\n<\/p>\n \nFor more information on the device and ESA\u2019s role in microprocessor development, watch our video interview with ESA microelectronics engineer Roland Weigand<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \nA close-up of the next-generation microprocessor that will serve a wide variety of future space missions.\n<\/p>\n \nStandard terrestrial chips wouldn’t last very long in orbit under the harsh blast of space radiation. So ESA has had a long history of working with industry<\/a> on specially ‘rad-hardened’ designs for space.\n<\/p>\n \nThis GR740 microprocessor, developed by Cobham Gaisler<\/a> in Sweden and manufactured by France-based STMicroelectronics<\/a>, is a quadcore design combining four embedded LEON4 cores. The LEON4 is the latest member of a series of chips that began with the LEON2-FT, developed at ESA from the second half of the 1990s.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n