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general:
glossary
project goals

E-2 Science Control Module (SCM)

The Science Control Module is responsible for acquisition, pre-analysis, encryption and storage of all science data. The design intent of the E-2 is that mission-selectable SCMs of various capabilities will be developed.

The SCM is solely responsible for the Science Data Log (SDL), a record of all science data acquired during the voyage.

In the Phase 1 E-2 preprototype, the SCM was implemented on an Advantech PCM-5820 PC/104 single-board computer based on a 300MHz Geode microprocessor running x86 Linux. This SBC was selected because of its wide range of onboard peripherals (audio I/O, USB host, parallel, RS-232 and RS-422/RS-485 asynchronous serial, wired Ethernet, PS/2, IrDA/ASKIR, bootable CompactFlash slot, analog VGA output, floppy controller and IDE channel).

Since the Phase 2 E-2 design is effectively sponsored by IBM developerWorks, the current design is based around a Buffalo Kuro Box device (essentially a PowerPC single-board computer). While this may not be fielded in the final design, it is certain that the final flight hardware will be based around a RISC microprocessor, either PowerPC or ARM.

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