SPC Weekly Report (July 9 to 15)
Lots of progress this week on our technology and community activities.
TECHNOLOGY PROGRESS:
Blockchain node in space
Hardware design of the SpaceChain node The team summarized the problems reflected in the peripheral function tests conducted on the initial test board of the space block node and decided on the hardware design of the node.
Note: The aerospace project is normally divided into three stages: the prototype stage, the specimen stage and the flight model stage. The prototype stage is similar to the initial model of the product. The specimen stage involves testing and improving the product. The flight model stage is where the final design is determined. The development of the blockchain node was combined with the prototype and specimen. Through testing, the problem was found and improved, and the sample system was finally obtained.
The final hardware design scheme is based on the prototype and the storage interface design scheme is modified to reflect that.. The memory of the initial board is connected to the main board through the eMMC IP core of the PL onthe main board. Due to the response time requirements of the memory chip, in the final design, the memory chip will be directly connected to the SDIO of the ZYNQ chip to ensure the stability of the memory.
The other peripherals on the node hardware are running normally in the test, satisfying the needs of the node, and will continue to be used in the same way. The node hardware will enter the production phase after the PCB is revised.
Note: After the production test has a cobnfirmed status of normal, the final assembly and integration tests will be completed together with other components. There are functional tests and environmental tests to ensure that the products can operate normally in a space environment.
● The test of communication link has started
This week, the team began testing the communication links between the space node and the main network node including communication between the space node and the platform, communication between the platform and the ground station, and communication between the ground station and main blockchain network. During the initial stage, the team will test the communication link between the space node and the platform.
Currently, the team is testing the communication link between the load node and the platform OBC. The two nodes interact through the CAN bus to implement functions such as service data transmission, load time synchronization and load health status monitoring. During the test, a test demo needs to be written according to the established CAN communication protocol. The test demo is used to check whether the workload can complete the communication task with the OBC and meet the predetermined performance requirements.
Currently, the CAN link communication is normal and has entered the stress test phase.
SpaceChain OS
● Troubleshoot client software issues
Last week, the new version of the Qtum client was migrated. During the functional test phase, the team found that when the client runs on the hardware board, there is incorrect block information during synchronization, which leads to block synchronization failure. The team immediately made some corrections to some of the interface implementations in the underlying libboost library but still could not complete the full synchronization process. This issue is still being investigated.
The patched version of the client software also showed an call instability when exits the interface in the stress test. In addition, when the system memory usage is too large and the user tries to stop the service using the stop command, the main thread will cause the service to exit the interface. After the RPC port is closed, the thread exits with an exception. Currently, the team is troubleshooting the issues based on the interface call relationship.
SpaceChain hardware
● Migration of SpaceChain OS on H3 open-source development card.
The underlying BSP of basic OS as well as the migration verification work on the H3 open-source development card, including the test verification of GPIO, SPI and UART peripherals, were finished this week. Since then, H3 has been able to run the basic system of SpaceChain OS, which is a significant step forward for this project.
Meanwhile, the hardware team is developing the related peripherals of H3 such as the Display UI System. The team is also working on the driver of display and touch screen. The driver framework for the screen has been decided via discussion, and the screen hardware device has been selected and tested.
Since the running of Qtum on H3 has been realized last week, we have started the work on embedded graphical interface of Qtum. Based on research from multiple parties, we have successfully driven the display with SPI port in Linux environment. The work of writing Qt on H3 board is ongoing, with the realization of basic functions.
Note: As an important part of the open environment of SpaceChain, H3 development card is a key tool for the development and testing of application. Developers can develop their own applications with H3 development card. The SpaceChain development team hopes to see as many technology development attempts as possible on this hardware, and will support the developer community with as many technical documentation support as possible. This will help us to build a real open-source and effective system. When the technology verification is mature in the future, SpaceChain will provide all the technical files to the community based on the idea of open-source, including software migration documents, peripheral development documents and application development documents, to provide solid open source technology for the community.
COMMUNITY & MEDIA:
In the news
SpaceChain Foundation and the US Cloud Constellation Corporation have reached a cooperation agreement. The two parties will jointly use the satellite system to provide a space innovation application platform for blockchain technology and explore the application of spacecraft in blockchain data security protection technology. For more information, visit https://coingeek.com/cloud-constellation-teams-spacechain-bring-space-level-security-cryptocurrency-exchanges/
This news is also posted by Business Insider, which is a fast-growing business site with deep financial, media, tech and other industry verticals. For more information, visit:
Community Activities
On July 13, SpaceChain was listed on HitBTC. The replenishment function and SPC/BTC, SPC/ETH, SPC/USDT trading pairs are now available. Based on statistics from CoinMarketCap, the 24-hour platform tansaction volume of HitBTC is ranked 7th in the world.
We really appreciate the long-term support and understanding of the community. We will keep on driving the projects forward, expanding our ecology. For more information, visit https://hitbtc.com.
