Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) capacity and Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) speed have largely increased in the last decade. Nowadays we can find one million or more logic blocks and several thousand arithmetic units (ALUs/DSP) on a single FPGA chip. We can also commercially procure ADC chips reaching 10 GSPS with 8 bits resolution, and up to 34 GSPS with 6 bits or less. This unprecedented data rates and computing power has allowed the digitalization of signal processes traditionally performed by analog devices. In radio astronomy, the clearest example has been the development of digital sideband separating receivers which, by replacing or calibrating the IF hybrid, have exhibited a sideband rejection above 40dB; this is 20 to 30dB higher than traditional analog sideband separating (2SB) receivers. Other promising applications are the digital synthesis of polarization, the mitigation of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) and detection extreme time-domain phenomena, like Fast Radio Bursts. In this talk I will cover both current and future applications of ultra-fast digital processing in Astronomy and mention possible transfer of technology to industry.