Cypress Korea (Country Manager Young-do Lim, www.cypress.com ) announced expanded features in version 2.0 of the excellent PSoC Creator™ design environment for its PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 programmable system-on-chip families.

This update, known as the “Component Pack,” includes new peripheral features that allow customers to easily migrate to existing PSoC devices to realize new capabilities within their designs.

The new component packs leverage PSoC's proprietary programming capabilities to provide new peripheral features, allowing users to update quickly and easily without needing to download the full PSoC Creator program. Each component will be fully tested and characterized to accelerate time-to-market and ensure high-quality end products for customers. Cypress plans to deliver new component packs approximately every eight weeks going forward.

Component Pack 1 adds the following new features to the platform:
- Up to 4 SD card interfaces and royalty-free FAT file system
- Graphic LCD component with royalty-free graphic library
- Standard 4-Wire Pressure-Sensitive Touch Interface
- Enhanced digital filter IIR (Biquad) support added to the digital filter block

While standard MCUs require the creation of new silicon to add or enhance peripherals, PSoC’s unique programming capabilities enable Cypress to deliver new features to users via component packs every six weeks. We call this, "MCUs cannot do it, but PSoCs can." “This is because standard microcontrollers cannot provide the flexibility and custom features offered by PSoCs,” said Lim Young-do, General Manager of Cypress Korea.

Release Status
The free download of Component Pack 1 for existing PSoC Creator 2.0 users is available on the website ( www.cypress.com/go/psoccreator ). Users downloading PSoC Creator 2.0 for the first time will automatically receive the Component Pack. Additionally, registered users will receive notifications when new Component Packs are released.
Cypress PSoC Creator
PSoC Creator is an excellent graphical design tool that enables users to customize PSoC devices to their specific system requirements in a short amount of time. This design environment includes a rich library of fully tested and characteristic analog and digital components that can be dragged and dropped onto designs and configured to meet a wide array of application requirements. The tool automatically places components into PSoC devices, routes all on-chip signals, and points I/O to optimal pins. Each peripheral component is meticulously parameterized and automatically optimized to perfectly meet the developer's needs without wasting resources. The build process generates a continuously named set of APIs for each component, allowing software developers to control the hardware without knowing the underlying register set. Customized designs and associated APIs can be saved to a library for future reuse and easily shared within the organization. With PSoC Creator, customers can design based on application requirements rather than the limitations of the target device. Resetting the target for a new device is as simple as rebuilding the application. Therefore, design porting between PSoC devices, including the complete migration of the design from 8-bit to 32-bit devices, is as simple as taking a snapshot.

Cypress PSoC capable of responding to design changes
PSoC devices adopt a highly combinable system-on-chip architecture for embedded control designs, providing capabilities equivalent to flash-based field-programmable ASICs without lead-time or NRE penalties. PSoC devices integrate combinable analog and digital circuits controlled by on-chip microcontrollers, enabling enhanced design changeability and reduced component count. A single PSoC device can integrate over 100 peripheral functions, reducing customer design time, board space, and power consumption while improving system quality and lowering system costs.

Flexible PSoC resources enable designers to make firmware-based changes throughout the design, verification, production, and post-launch phases, ensuring that products remain competitive in the future. The inherent flexibility of PSoC shortens design cycle times and enables future feature enhancements. All PSoC devices are also dynamically reconfigurable, allowing designers to morph internal resources while utilizing fewer components to perform a given task. For more information regarding PSoC products, please visit www.cypress.com/psoc . In addition, for information regarding free online training, please refer to www.cypress.com/psoctraining .