One GigaSample Per Second Data Acquisition using Available Gate Array Technology

A new National Aeronautics and Space Administration instrument forced demanding requirements upon its altimeter digitizer system. Eight-bit data would be generated at a rate of one billion samples per second. NASA had never before attempted to capture such high-speed data in the radiation, low-power, no-convective-cooling, limited-board-area environment of space. This presentation describes how the gate array technology available at the time of the design was used to implement this one gigasample per second data acquisition system