The probe "New horizons" is running a microchip from the PlayStation console

The probe "New Horizons", launched by the NASA space agency back in 2006, operates under a microprocessor that was the heart of the very first PlayStation gaming console, released in 1994. Yes, yes, the same chip, thanks to which we once played Metal Gear Solid, Twisted Metal and Final Fantasy VII, is now responsible for the success of a very expensive and important space mission.

This is a processor MIPS R3000 CPU, which is responsible for the operation of engines, sensors and data transfer from the probe to the flight control center. The frequency of this RISC-processor, installed in the Sony PlayStation console, was only 33.8688 MHz. Of course, in order to use the chip in the space mission, it was slightly reworked. Its clock frequency was reduced to 10-15 MHz, but the 32-bit chip received a serious protection from cosmic radiation.

The development of the updated version of the processor was paid by the agency NASA. The new chip, grounded in space missions, was called Mongoose-V, but, in fact, it is almost an exact copy of the processor from the good old PlayStation gaming console. This is a fairly common strategy for NASA, as the agency's specialists prefer to use time-tested technologies in space missions. For space engineers, computing power is not important, reliability is important for them.

The probe "New horizons" has successfully plowed the expanses of the solar system for nine years already. It moves at a speed of 14.5 kilometers per second and has already retired from the Earth for a distance of more than 4.5 billion kilometers. And it still functions properly. By the way, does your PlayStation console still work?

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/technology/zond-novye-gorizonty-rabotaet-pod-upravleniem-mikrochipa-iz-konsoli-playstation.html.