PSoC Express(TM) Makes Custom Embedded Designs Possible Without Requiring Designers to Use Microcontroller Code
LYNNWOOD, Wash.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—March 14, 2005— Cypress MicroSystems, a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY), today introduced PSoC Express(TM), an innovative new development tool for Cypress's PSoC(TM) mixed-signal arrays that dramatically improves mixed-signal design practices.PSoC Express is the first development tool that allows system engineers to develop microcontroller-based designs at a level that does not require any Assembly language or C programming. By operating at a higher level of abstraction than previously possible and removing the necessity to develop the required firmware, PSoC Express enables new designs to be created, simulated and programmed to the targeted PSoC device in hours or days instead of in weeks or months.
Cypress's PSoC mixed signal arrays are programmable SOCs that integrate a microcontroller and the analog and digital components that typically surround it in an embedded system. A single PSoC device can integrate as many as 100 peripheral functions and a microcontroller, saving customers design time, board space, power consumption, and system costs. PSoC Express dramatically lowers barriers to entry for engineers desiring to exploit the flexibility of microcontroller-based solutions for a wide range of applications.
George Saul, President of Cypress MicroSystems, comments, "Just as the object-oriented paradigm freed software developers from the complexity imposed by structured programming languages, PSoC Express frees hardware designers from the intricacies of current embedded development/design environments. Designers can now create robust, complex SOC solutions quickly and painlessly using PSoC Express. PSoC Express delivers the full power and flexibility of PSoC mixed-signal arrays while making it unnecessary for the designer to know or use programming languages."
With PSoC Express, designers work within their areas of application expertise, defining a custom solution by choosing input and output devices from a catalog, and then logically linking them to define system behavior. For example, a user can select temperature sensors, voltage inputs, fans, LEDs, and then define temperature regions for fan operation, voltage monitor thresholds and "sequence-on" logic. Within PSoC Express the designer is able to verify designs through simulation, then generate and download the device-programming file. The new tool also creates customized project documentation including a datasheet with register map, interface schematics, and bill of materials. Without writing any microcontroller code, designers implement reliable, custom applications faster than they can write the requirements.
Max Baron, Principal Analyst for In-Stat and Senior Editor of the Microprocessor Report, said, "PSoC Express is the world's first Visual Resource-Based development tool for microcontrollers. It is now possible for OEM system designers to rapidly develop embedded designs for a broad range of applications whether or not they are familiar with Assembly or C programming."
To further accelerate the design cycle, PSoC Express contains illustrative examples that the designer can learn from, use "as-is" or modify to meet specific application requirements. This is just one level of the content-driven architecture underlying PSoC Express. A proprietary application generation engine (linked transparently to the award winning PSoC Designer(TM) low-level code generator) utilizes a catalog including real-world-device drivers (e.g. fans, thermistors, switches, voltages, etc.), transfer functions (threshold checking, truth table, priority encoder, etc.) and communication protocols like I2C and RS232, all of which are combined visually by the designer to build custom solutions. Cypress plans to release quarterly catalog updates and later this year will release a complete Content Developer's Guide to enable third parties to generate PSoC Express content.
Darren Ashby, Electronics Product Manager at Icon Health and Fitness, said, "I have tried nearly every 8-bit MCU on the market, and what sets the PSoC architecture apart is its tremendous flexibility. Now, with the new PSoC Express, we can take advantage of that flexibility to solve real world problems unbelievably fast. Engineers are visual by nature, and PSoC Express caters to that, making the PSoC architecture easier to design with than any other 8-bit micro I have seen."
Pricing and Availability
PSoC Express is available today, at no charge, from Cypress's web site at http://www.cypress.com/psocexpress. The PSoC Express Development Kit (CY3210-ExpressDK) is available on the Cypress Online Store.
Users can register for a free PSoC Express web seminar on March 16 at http://cmpnetseminars.com/TSG/default.asp?q=176&;K=0N24. Recorded versions of Cypress on-line seminars are also available in the "Events" section of the Cypress web site ( www.cypress.com).
About the PSoC Family
PSoC devices are configurable mixed signal arrays that integrate a fast 8-bit microcontroller with many peripheral functions typically found in an embedded design. PSoC devices provide the advantages of an ASIC without the ASIC NRE or turn-around time. A single PSoC device can integrate as many as 100 peripheral functions with a microcontroller, saving customers design time, board space, power consumption and from 5 cents to as much as $10 in system costs. Easy to use development tools enable designers to select configurable library elements to provide analog functions such as amplifiers, ADCs, DACs, filters and comparators and digital functions such as timers, counters, PWMs, SPI and UARTs. The PSoC family's analog features include rail-to-rail inputs, programmable gain amplifiers and up to 14-bit ADCs with exceptionally low noise, input leakage and voltage offset. PSoC devices include up to 32KB of Flash memory, 2KB of SRAM, an 8x8 multiplier with 32-bit accumulator, power and sleep monitoring circuits, and hardware I2C communications.
All PSoC devices are dynamically reconfigurable, enabling designers to create new system functions on-the-fly. Designers can achieve more than 120 percent utilization of the die in many cases, by reconfiguring the same silicon for different functions at different times. In the automotive PSoC LIN bus reference design, the same digital blocks are reconfigured four times to support the different LIN communication modes; in doing so, these blocks consume less than 10 percent of PSoC hardware resources and less than 10 percent of the PSoC MCU cycles.
Software and Support
PSoC Designer, the traditional software development environment for PSoC, is a full-featured, GUI-based design tool suite that enables the user to configure design-in silicon with simple point and click options. With PSoC Designer, users can code the MCU in either C or assembly language; and debug the design using sophisticated features such as event triggers and multiple break points, while single-stepping through code in C or assembly or a mix of the two. PSoC Designer is free and can also be downloaded at http://www.cypress.com/psocexpress.
About Cypress MicroSystems
Headquartered in Lynnwood, Wash., Cypress MicroSystems develops and markets the expanding Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) product family - high-performance, field-programmable mixed signal integration products for high-volume embedded control functions in consumer, industrial, office automation, telecom and automotive applications. The close association with Cypress Semiconductor allows access to their process and design technology, and field sales and applications forces. More information about Cypress MicroSystems and its successful line of PSoC products-as well as access to over 150 PSoC applications notes-is available online at www.cypress.com.
About Cypress
Cypress solutions are at the heart of any system that is built to perform: consumer, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial, and solar power. Leveraging a strong commitment to customer service and performance-based process and manufacturing expertise, Cypress's product portfolio includes a broad selection of wired and wireless USB devices, CMOS image sensors, timing solutions, network search engines, specialty memories, high-bandwidth synchronous and micropower memory products, optical solutions, and reconfigurable mixed-signal arrays. Cypress stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CY. More information about the company is available online at www.cypress.com.
Cypress and the Cypress logo are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. "Visual Embedded Programming", "Programmable System-on-Chip," PSoC, PSoC Designer and PSoC Express are trademarks of Cypress PCD. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contact:
Cypress Public Relations Don Parkman, 408-943-4885 Email Contact