The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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The LEON family of processors are ESA’s equivalent of ‘Intel Inside’: high-performance 32-bit microprocessors that have been optimised to operate satellites’ onboard computers. ‘FT’ stands for ‘fault tolerant: its design is proofed against ‘Single Event Upsets’ caused by space radiation and incorporates triple modular redundancy to guard against software flips, with its memory protected by ‘error detection and checking’ and ‘parity bits’ – adding extra bits per memory item so any disruption can be identified. The LEON2-FT is available commercially as the AT-697 processor, sold by ESA’s development partner Atmel Corporation. Two further LEON generations have since been unveiled – the LEON4-FT is the latest.