Product category:
Design and Development Software
News Release from: Cypress Semiconductor | Subject: PSoC Express
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 17 March 2005
Mixed-signal design without programming
PSoC Express is a novel development tool for Cypress's PSoC mixed-signal arrays that dramatically improves mixed-signal design practices.
PSoC Express is a novel development tool for Cypress's PSoC 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
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 21 Aug 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
Tool simplifies embedded design
PSoc Express allows designers to monitor application data via an I2C to USB bridge connected to a target board.
Tools speed user interface design
Development tool for PSoC mixed-signal arrays supports Cypress's CapSense capacitive sensing solution.
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 analogue 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.
Further reading
Software makes the most of mixed-signal arrays
Innovative development tool for PSoC mixed-signal arrays dramatically simplifies embedded design.
Nonvolatile SRAMs expand to 8Mbit
New 2 and 8Mbit nvSRAMs feature access times as low as 20ns, infinite read, write and recall cycles, and 20-year data retention.
Design tool bridges high and low levels
Integrated design environment includes both code-free and high-level-language programming modes in one package.
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 behaviour.
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 customised 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 low-level code generator) utilises a catalog including real-world-device drivers (eg 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 catalogue 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 8bit 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 8bit micro I have seen".
PSoC Express is available today, at no charge, from Cypress's website.
The PSoC Express Development Kit (CY3210-ExpressDK) is available from the Cypress online store.
• Cypress Semiconductor: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Electronicstalk email newsletter
• Electronicstalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
