Mercury 2 FPGA Development Board

Part # FPGA SRAM Price (USD) Status
ME2A-35T-4M A7-35T 4Mbit $139 In Stock
ME2A-35T-16M A7-35T 16Mbit $169 In Stock
ME2A-100T-16M A7-100T 16Mbit $249 1 month lead time

Mercury 2 block diagram (click for larger view)

Technical Specifications

  • Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA (XC7A35T or XC7A100T)

  • FTDI FT2232H 480Mbps USB 2.0 interface

    • Channel A: device configuration and debugging (SPI Flash programming and USB-JTAG interface)

    • Channel B: user-configurable interface between the FPGA and host for high-speed data transfer

  • 50MHz MEMS oscillator (±50ppm)

  • External Memory

    • 32Mbit SPI configuration / user Flash

    • 4Mbit (512K x 8-bit) or 16Mbit (2M x 8-bit) 10ns asynchronous SRAM

  • Analog I/O

    • Microchip MCP 3008 8-channel, 200 KSPS, 10-bit ADC

    • Microchip MCP 4812 2-channel, 225 KHz, 10-bit DAC

    • Artix-7 internal XADC 1MSPS , 12-bit ADC, accessible on dedicated ADC input or mappable to FPGA-direct IO

  • Digital I/O

    • 40x 5-volt tolerant IO pins provided by 2x TI SN74CB3T16210 bus switches

    • 10x FPGA-direct high speed IO pins

    • 3x User LEDs

    • On-board Microchip LAN8720A 10/100 Ethernet PHY

    • Expansion headers for Ethernet and Wi-Fi communication modules

    • 6-pin header for direct JTAG interface to the Artix-7 FPGA

  • Power

    • Powered from Micro USB input or external 4.5 - 5.5V regulated power source

    • On-board high-efficiency switching regulators for 3.3V, 1.8V and 1.0V rails

Made in America

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Mercury 2 is proudly designed and assembled in the United States, at our in-house SMT assembly line. This allows us to ensure the highest production quality, and gives us the flexibility to quickly customize aspects of Mercury 2 to your specifications (part substitutions, industrial temperature range, etc.) Contact us today if you are interested in a customized Mercury 2 order, or if you are interested in our engineering services including custom digital logic design in VHDL / Verilog.

Mercury can be used easily on a solderless breadboard

Mercury can be used easily on a solderless breadboard

Convenient DIP Package


Mercury 2 has 64 round machine header pins in a familiar dual in-line package (DIP) format. No proprietary expansion connectors - just drop it right into a breadboard!

Mercury 2 is perfect for rapid prototyping, and the super tiny form-factor makes it easy to embed into a project with tight space. We've taken care of the voltage regulators, bypass capacitors and USB configuration circuitry, freeing you to focus on your actual design!

Flexible I/O

Most FPGA development boards are limited to 3.3V digital-only I/O, but we built Mercury 2 with more flexibility in mind:

We've included an on-board 8-channel SPI ADC (10-bit, 200 Ksps) and SPI DAC (10-bit, 225 MHz) for interfacing quickly and easily with analog circuits. The Artix-7 includes an internal XADC (12-bit, 1MSPS), which has a dedicated input pin, and the ability to use a subset of the Mercury direct I/O pins as additional inputs.

Mercury 2 also has 40 pins of high-speed 5V-tolerant digital I/O, so you can safely interface TTL-level devices with the Artix-7 FPGA.

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Mercury Baseboard

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The Mercury Baseboard (sold separately) is the perfect companion for the Mercury FPGA development board! The Mercury board docks right into the 64-pin DIP socket, adding many useful peripherals, including:

  • 4-digit seven segment display

  • 4 pushbuttons, 8 switches

  • 3.5mm stereo audio input and output

  • VGA port supporting 8-bit color

  • PS/2 port for keyboard or mouse

  • 1 double Pmod-compatible connector

  • Analog sensors: (light, temperature, potentiometer)

Check out the complete specs at the Mercury baseboard product page!