MerlinTPS, a provider of of Terrestrial Positioning Systems, has announced a partnership with Bluespec, to address the need for GNSS-augmentation and backup technology as satellites continue to face new challenges, including wartime contested space as well as increased costs to produce and maintain satellites.
MerlinTPS is working with Bluespec to further develop its platform that can support the expansion of PNT security capabilities by utilizing existing signals of opportunity on the ground that combat jamming and spoofing.
“Bluespec has helped many companies use RISC-V to innovate, and we are happy to be bringing that capability to MerlinTPS,” said Charlie Hauck, CEO of Bluespec. “With our verification and validation centric RISC-V solutions, MerlinTPS can develop customized solutions in a matter of weeks, allowing it to deliver highly differentiated products with minimal project and schedule risk.”
“Bluespec’s seasoned advice, development experience and efficiencies have been a great springboard for us,” said Christian Kotscher, CEO at MerlinTPS. “Bluespec’s acute knowledge of leading software and hardware development stood out when we were looking for a partner for delivering the next iteration of our technology. With the need for supplemental GPS technology becoming more pressing by the day, our work together will help bring the platform and its multitude of capabilities to life quicker.”
By implementing Bluespec’s RISC-V processors in FPGAs, MerlinTPS can quickly modify, generate and load new code onto FPGAs. This approach allows for hardware reuse, avoiding the need to build custom hardware for each task. However, MerlinTPS can easily make customizations to Bluespec’s RISC-V soft processor cores — adding custom instructions designed to accelerate specific workloads — when needed. In the future, MerlinTPS plans to add AI capabilities to the platform, so these acceleration capabilities are especially important.
