TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwan Space Agency said Wednesday it licensed a satellite-grade general-purpose graphics processing unit to Liscotech for commercialization.
The system, developed with Liscotech and based on Nvidia chips, uses a modular design that enables GPUs to operate in space, per CNA. TASA said the technology has reached Technology Readiness Level 9, meaning it is ready for operational deployment.
The GPGPU was tested aboard the Black Kite-1 CubeSat mission built by Rapidtek Technologies at the end of last year. It carried out AI image recognition using a You Only Look Once model, with results transmitted back to Earth and verified against ground-based testing.
During the mission, the system processed preloaded images in orbit and completed multiple test runs. TASA said additional trials of up to 15 minutes are planned to further validate stability.
TASA said the development reflects a broader shift in satellite design, from passive data collection to intelligent nodes. On-orbit processing can reduce data downlink requirements and improve response speed in disaster monitoring, the agency said.
Liscotech said traditional satellite architectures face bandwidth and cost constraints under a “downlink first, compute later” model. It said onboard GPGPU computing enables space-based edge processing and improved efficiency.
