HERON FPGA Modules with Virtex^®-II 

The HERON-FPGA and HERON modules that use reprogrammable Xilinx^® FPGAs have options up to 8Million gates per device - combine as many modules as you need to get the right features - the modules can exchange data at up to 400Mbytes/second in each direction using FIFO connections! Add off-chip memory accessed at 500Mbytes/second and I/O at 100s of Mhz and you can put together systems with almost limitless capabilities!

The Virtex^®-II FPGAs that we use have thousands of Configurable Logic Blocks, which can be linked together to form any logic function you choose. To help make them more useful for real time systems and DSP they offer built in multipliers, memory and clock management devices. The I/O pins are programmable and can support many different formats - LVTTL, LVDS, PECL etc, so you can construct almost any interface you require. With multipliers and memory you can also build many DSP functions such as filters, FFTs etc, and because these functions are made in hardware, they are all being executed at the same time!

The FPGA configuration developed in VHDL, is normally downloaded using the HERON Serial Bus, but after development is complete embedded systems can use on board PROMs to configure the FPGAs on power up. 

Along with many example projects we provide the Hardware Interface Layer which allows you to access the module hardware with guaranteed signal timing and logic - leaving you free to concentrate on your application VHDL. We give you lots of VHDL to use in your system - functions like Camera Link, FPDP, Digital Down Converters, Image Processing functions etc.

ExtremeDSP™  from Xilinx makes a lot of signal processing functionality available to the developer. Blocks like Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT), Direct Digital Synthesisers (DDS) and even FIR filters are supplied as standard with the Xilinx tools. We supply several worked examples of such functions that can be used as demonstrations of using FPGAs but can also be useful starting points for the development of your project.  

Below are the modules with Virtex^®-II available now. See also our HERON modules with Virtex^®-4 and HERON modules with Virtex^®-II Pro
We are continuously developing new modules using the latest FPGA technology.  Contact us if you have a requirement that is not already available.

Modules with FPGA and memory

HERON-FPGA5	Virtex®-II 1M gate FPGA with 256 Mbytes SDRAM	FIFOS access at 400Mbytes/sec in and  400Mbytes/sec out at the same time.  Memory access at 500Mbytes/second	45 digital I/Os and serial options
HERON-FPGA7	Virtex®-II 3, 6 or 8M gate FPGA  with 256Mbytes SDRAM	FIFOS access at 400Mbytes/sec in and  400Mbytes/sec out at the same time.  Memory access at 500Mbytes/second	45 digital I/Os and serial options

Modules with FPGA and analogue I/O

HERON-IO2	Virtex®-II 1M gate or Spartan II 200K gate FPGAs in FG456 package.	FIFOS access at 400Mbytes/sec in and  400Mbytes/sec out at the same time.	2 channels of 125Msps 12 bit A/D and 2 channels of 125Msps 14 bit D/A
HERON-IO5	Virtex®-II 1.5 or 3M gate in FG676 package.	FIFOS access at 400Mbytes/sec in and  400Mbytes/sec out at the same time.	2 channels of 210Msps 12 bit A/D and 2 channels of 160Msps 16 bit D/A
HERON-IO5-DO	Virtex®-II 1.5 or 3M gate in FG676 package.	FIFOS access at 400Mbytes/sec in and  400Mbytes/sec out at the same time.	2 channels of 210Msps 12 bit A/D and 2 channels of 160Msps 16 bit D/A with differential outputs

Modules with FPGA and programmable digital I/O

HERON-FPGA3	Virtex®-II 1M gate or Spartan II 200K gate FPGAs in FG456 package.	FIFOS access at 400Mbytes/sec in and  400Mbytes/sec out at the same time.	90 digital I/Os and serial options
HERON-FPGA4	Virtex®-II 3M, 6M or 8M gate FPGAs in FF1152 package.	FIFOS access at 400Mbytes/sec in and  400Mbytes/sec out at the same time.	90 digital I/Os and serial options