Cypress Korea (Branch Manager Im Young-do www.cypress.com) announced that I-Rocks Technology (www.i-rocks.com), a leading PC peripheral manufacturer in Taiwan, has selected Cypress's PRoC™-UI (Programmable Radio-on-a-Chip-User Interface) solution for its RF6496 wireless keyboard featuring an integrated touchpad.

The Cypress PRoC-UI delivers superior touch performance with Windows 8-compatible multi-touch gesture support alongside best-in-class wireless connectivity in a single chip, reducing BOM (bill-of-materials) costs for keyboards. The I-Rocks RF6496 also utilizes Cypress's enCoRe™ V low-power companion microcontroller for its mechanical buttons.

With the powerful wireless connectivity of PRoC-UI, the I-Rocks RF6496 touchpad keyboard operates up to 10 meters from the computer. This capability allows users to easily surf the web and play music by connecting a PC to a TV, as well as comfortably watch movies from the sofa. The PRoC-UI solution combines Cypress's CapSense® and TrueTouch capacitive touch technologies with a proprietary 2.4-GHz WirelessUSB™-NL Radio. The PRoC-UI single-chip solution also provides standard HID microcontroller functionality, efficiently combining three chips into one to reduce BOM costs, board space, and power consumption while improving reliability compared to multi-chip implementations.

"PRoC-UI eliminated the need for I-Rocks RF6496 touch keyboard to purchase capacitive touch controllers and wireless radios from multiple vendors. Cypress provided outstanding support capabilities and the capacitive touch performance is best-in-class," said Toby Lin, General Manager at I-Rocks.

"The I-Rocks RF6496 trackpad keyboard design is an excellent example of the value PRoC-UI delivers for wireless HID products. PRoC-UI simplifies the design and shortens product time-to-market while enabling the touchpad to support diverse gestures for a differentiated user experience," said Im Young-do, Branch Manager of Cypress Korea.

PRoC-UI features impressive -87 dBm receive sensitivity at 1 Mbps. This enhanced sensitivity enables longer operating range and allows for lower power transmission signals. The device is characterized by low active current and standby current, extending battery life. Additionally, PRoC-UI delivers excellent performance against 2.4-GHz interference from common sources such as WiFi, Bluetooth, cordless phones, and microwave ovens.

PRoC-UI supports Cypress's AgileHID™ protocol, allowing existing WirelessUSB-NL customers to quickly begin their designs without any additional effort. Customers with existing designs using WirelessUSB-NL can reuse the same dongle for new PRoC-UI-based touch products. PRoC-UI is provided as free software for end-product customization.