Intel has entered the space computing market with a new system-on-chip called Starfire, designed to handle artificial intelligence workloads, onboard data processing, and autonomous operations on satellites and spacecraft.
The Starfire processor integrates a CPU, graphics processing, neural processing, and image processing in a single package. It runs Ubuntu Linux and uses the x86 architecture, giving it compatibility with a broad ecosystem of existing software development tools. Intel said initial customer availability is expected by the end of 2026.
The chip is being developed with two power variants: a low-power version under 10 watts for small spacecraft with tight energy budgets, and a higher-performance version for more demanding workloads. The company aims for a mission life exceeding 10 years and expects to complete radiation qualification testing before the end of the third quarter of 2026.
Sean O’Neill, deputy director of product development at Intel Government Technologies, said legacy space technology would not accomplish the missions of tomorrow.
Intel enters a market with established competitors including BAE Systems, which produces radiation-hardened system-on-chip processors for national security applications; Microchip, which is developing NASA’s High-Performance Spaceflight Computing processor; and AMD, which offers space-grade Versal adaptive SoCs for machine learning and high-throughput processing. European suppliers have also been pushing their own radiation-hardened processors for space and defence applications.
The company has not disclosed the total investment in Starfire but said the development was fully internally funded. All assembly, screening, and qualification work is done at Intel’s Ocotillo campus in Chandler, Arizona, a 700-hectare site with five fabrication plants. The domestic supply chain approach aligns with broader U.S. government efforts to reduce reliance on overseas chip manufacturing, including the $8.9 billion CHIPS Act investment in Intel announced in August 2025, which gave the U.S. government a 9.9 percent passive stake in the company.
Intel said it has signed multiple partnership agreements with government organisations and channel partners but did not name them. The company is also seeking flight opportunities with U.S. government agencies for an experimental mission in late 2026.
Starfire is designed for routine spacecraft functions including telemetry, command sequencing, data compression, and autonomous scheduling, as well as AI-heavy tasks such as image analytics, object detection, anomaly detection, sensor fusion, predictive maintenance, and onboard health monitoring.
O’Neill said there was a universal need for advanced processing that operates reliably in space.
Source: SpaceNews