New family expands acclaimed PSoC 4 architecture offering

Cypress Semiconductor has introduced a new product family featuring its PSoC 4 programmable system-on-chip architecture. The new PSoC 4 M-Series expands the acclaimed PSoC 4 architecture by delivering more programmable analog and digital blocks, 128KB flash memory, a direct memory access controller, dual control area network (CAN) interfaces and 55 general-purpose I/Os with the 32-bit ARM-Cortex-M0 core - making it a natural fit to replace existing 8- and 16-bit applications. Additionally, the devices extend the design flexibility of the PSoC architecture to a wide range of sensor-based systems in home appliance, automotive and system management control applications, says the company. "Our PSoC 4 portfolio enables customers to replace their 8- and 16-bit MCU-based products and seamlessly migrate to a 32-bit ARM platform for as low as 25-cents," said John Weil, vice president of PSoC marketing, Cypress. "Our new PSoC 4 M-Series expands the PSoC 4 portfolio and now enables designers to create even more custom interfaces and analog front ends to add differentiation, functionality and performance to their products and create world-class, innovative solutions." The PSoC 4 M-Series delivers 16 programmable digital blocks including eight timer/counter/PWM blocks, four serial communication blocks and four Universal Digital Blocks-Cypress's programmable digital blocks containing two programmable logic devices, a programmable data path and status and control registers. The programmable digital blocks can implement coprocessors to offload compute-intensive tasks from the included ARM Cortex-M0 core, which traditionally were only available in 8- and 16-bit platforms. Further, the blocks enable engineers to create emerging or custom serial communication interfaces in the available programmable hardware, such as support for Pulse-Density Modulation microphones and the USB Type-C configuration channel protocol, which typically required new silicon platforms from traditional microcontroller (MCU) vendors. The PSoC 4 M-Series delivers 12 programmable analog blocks including four highly configurable op-amps, four current-output digital-to-analog converters (IDACs), two low-power comparators, a 12-bit SAR ADC and a CapSense capacitive touch-sensing block. The programmable analog blocks enable engineers to create on-chip, custom analog front ends to support new end-product features like sensors for wearable devices without increasing product costs, size or power consumption. Cypress's industry-leading CapSense capacitive touch-sensing technology enables engineers to add sophisticated user interfaces with advanced features like proximity sensing and water tolerance. The scalable PSoC 4 architecture is complemented by the easy-to-use PSoC Creator Integrated Design Environment (IDE), which simplifies system design and accelerates time-to-market by enabling concurrent hardware and firmware design, and PSoC Components-free embedded ICs represented by an icon in the IDE. Together they enable rapid prototyping of end applications while minimizing PCB spins and firmware changes that are typically required. PSoC 4 M-Series is built on the low-power PSoC 4 architecture and offers five low-power modes to minimize system power consumption. It supports a low leakage retention power mode, using only 150nA while retaining SRAM, programmable logic and the ability to wake up from an interrupt. It also offers a best-in-class non-retention stop mode down to 20nA with a GPIO wakeup capability. Embedded World 2015, Both 259, Hall 5, Nuremberg.