PSoC Creator Software Offers Design Environment for New Cypress PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 Architectures

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (News - Alert), a provider of high-performance, mixed-signal, programmable solutions, has introduced the PSoC Creator Integrated Development Environment for the new PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 programmable system-on-chip families.

 

This software allows engineers to design the way they think, using schematic-based design capture along with certified, pre-packaged peripherals to keep system creation independent of the target PSoC device.

 

Instead of trawling through device documentation and memorizing register maps, users simply lay out the design, as done on paper, and let the tool translate it into the PSoC configuration. The customers can create designs according to application requirements, not the limitations of the target device.

 

The PSoC 3 devices are based on a new, high-performance 8-bit 8051 processor, while the PSoC 5 devices include a powerful 32-bit ARM (News - Alert) Cortex-M3 processor. These provide designers with a seamless, programmable design platform, allowing easy migration from 8 to 16 to 32 bits, according to Cypress. Additionally, the new PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 architectures include high-precision programmable analog capability (up to 20-bit resolution for an analog to digital converter) and expanded programmable digital resources.

 

PSoC Creator combines a software development IDE with a graphical design editor to form a powerful hardware/software co-design environment. It provides many pre-configured analog and digital peripherals that can easily be dropped into the schematic design canvas and combined into powerful systems. The tool automatically routes all on-chip signals and can even direct I/O to the optimum pins. Each peripheral component is carefully parameterized so that the implementation can be optimized to fit the developer’s requirements.

 

Customized designs, and their associated APIs, can even be saved in a library for future reuse and easily shared within an organization.

 

“Embedded designers finally have a tool that works the way they think, allowing them to create solutions without the constraints of specific devices or limitations between software and hardware designs,” said Norm Taffe, executive vice president of the consumer and computation division at Cypress. “Our lead customers are just as enthusiastic about the PSoC Creator design methodology as they are about the PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 families themselves.”

 

“PSoC Creator is unlike other embedded design tools we have seen,” added Rich Wawrzyniak, a senior analyst of ASIC and SoC at Semico Research Corp. “It combines the speed and convenience of pre-built peripheral functions with the flexibility to create and re-use customized IP.”