INTRODUCTION

PURPOSE

Development of the Macintosh Telemetry and Command (MacTAC) System is a joint effort between Code 521, the Microelectronic Systems Branch (MSB), Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)/NASA, and Clemson University. The purpose of the MacTAC System is to provide a medium-rate, low-cost alternative for processing telemetry data based on Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) recommendations, while remaining flexible enough to provide support for earlier missions.

This flexibility is achieved by a modular design effort (both in hardware and software) that isolates key processing tasks that may be performed on a given telemetry stream. If a particular task is not required, that function may be disabled or excluded from the system.

System setup and operational control of the MacTAC is achieved by an interactive Graphical User Interface (GUI). This user interface is a standard Macintosh application that has a look-and-feel that is similar to many commercial packages available for the Macintosh series of computers. This interface isolates the user from many of the tedious details of configuring the hardware required to perform telemetry processing, and allows the user to configure the system with only a basic knowledge of the underlying hardware architecture.

This document explains how to operate the MacTAC System, which consists of a Macintosh II or Quadra computer, several NuBus™ cards, and the software that runs on each Central Processing Unit (CPU) in the system. This document describes the MacTAC user-interface software, and provides a hardware overview.