Sandia National Labs' SA3000: A Radiation-Hardened 8085 CPU for Defense and Space
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Summary
This article from The CPU Shack Museum covers Sandia National Laboratories' SA3000 8085 CPU, a radiation-hardened microprocessor developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sandia built its own IC design, fabrication, and testing capacity to produce components not available commercially — specifically radiation-hardened devices for weapons and space missions. The article details Sandia's fab history starting in 1978 on 2-inch wafers with a 10-micron process, and highlights the SA3000 as a radiation-hardened version of the Intel 8085 CPU, used in critical defense and aerospace applications where reliability in harsh environments was paramount.
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Hacker NewsSandia National Labs' SA3000: A Radiation-Hardened 8085 CPU for Defense and Spacecpushack.comKey quotes
· 3 pulledWhy would a National Laboratory need the capacity to do this? To provide components that were not available commercially.
Sandia's goal was to make radiation hardened devices for use in weapons and space missions.
The harshest environments and where reliability was paramount.
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