The paper introduces a model of massively parallel computation based on broadcast synchronous agents. It consists of a collection of uniform automata which evolve synchronously. Each agent may observe the state of any other agent via broadcast communication, but it is not aware of the identity of the other agents. A Broadcast Automata based System (BAS) is presented as a new approach to the development of embedded system prototypes, specifically in the field of space applications, where the resource constraints, as well as fault detection and recovery, are critical. An example of application in signal processing is illustrated.