Here is a computer that is claimed to be capable of operating faster than any computer in space today - it is as much as 100 times faster! It is being developed by engineering researchers at the University of Florida and Honeywell Aerospace.

Once launched abroad a rocket, the computer should be able to process rapidly increasing amounts of data that are gathered by advanced scientific satellites. It is also needed to help space probes in making more rapid decisions by themselves, independently without taking any assistance from their Earth-bound minders.

The computer — UF-Honeywell computer — will be upgrading both satellites and probes with a novel design — the Dependable Multiprocessor. The project is funded by NASA’s New Millennium Program and the Florida High Technology Corridor Council.

The completed computer is expected to be launched aboard a NASA rocket — the unmanned ST8 rocket mission — on a test mission in 2009. Alan George, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and UF’s principal investigator on the project said,

To explore space and to support Earth and space science, there is a great need for much more processing power in space.