The QuiXxilica NEPTUNE VXS is part of the QuiXilica VXS family of FPGA based processing hardware. The QuiXilica VXS family provides a complete range of flexible analog and digital IO products in the VITA 41.0 VXS form factor. The product range couples high performance analog and digital IO front ends with a scalable FPGA based processing architecture. Memory and inter-processor communications resources have been optimized to address the requirements of very high performance real time digital signal processing applications. This family of products is supported by a range of development kits, FPGA cores and software, providing users with power and flexibility while retaining consistency and ease of use across the range.

Key applications for the NEPTUNE VXS include radar, electronic warfare, software radio and telecommunications.

Features:
•     2 Channel 2 Gsps Digitizer and Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGA Processor
•     2x 10bit 2Gsps Atmel ADC / DMUX
•     Xilinx XC2VP70 FPGA
•     VME/VXS form factor, VITA 41.0 Compliant, 8x 3.125Gbit/s serial I/O links
•     2x Front Panel SFP slots for 2.5 Gb/s fiber or copper transceivers
•     2x DDR SDRAM SODIMM Slots, up to 1 GB each
•     2x On Board DDR SDRAM Banks, 0.5 GB each
•     Quixstart flexible FPGA configuration system
•     Developer’s Kit available containing FPGA interface cores, software and reference design


Hardware Description

The NEPTUNE 2 VXS is a 6U form factor card that can be employed as a payload card as defined in the VITA 41.0 VXS specification. The card can also be deployed in a standard VME 64 chassis if the P0 connector is not populated. The VME 64 interface is used only for powering the card - the VME bus interface itself is not implemented. Control and high speed data IO for the card will be implemented using the high speed serial links available on the front panel and/or the backplane P0 connector. The card can also be used standalone (i.e. without a backplane) if desired.

The NEPTUNE 2 VXS is supplied with a standard FPGA bitstream and Windows based software application for a two channel, snapshot data capture system. A standard
Gigabit Ethernet link to the front panel is used to interface the card to the host PC.

A hardware reference manual provides users with sufficient detail to develop their own FPGA based applications for the card entirely from scratch. However, for rapid development, an additional Developer’s Kit can be purchased which contains FPGA interface cores, software and source code for the snapshot data capture system as a reference design.