Cypress Says Goodbye to MCU Code

Cypress Semiconductor Corp.’s Cypress MicroSystems subsidiary today released a development tool for Cypress’ programmable SoC (PSOC) mixed-signal arrays, aiming to allow custom embedded designs to be created without microcontroller code.

The Lynnwood, Wash.-based company claims

this is the first development tool that allows system engineers to develop MCU-based designs at a level that does not require any assembly language or C programming.

By operating at a higher level of abstraction than previously possible and removing the necessity to develop the required firmware, the PSOC Express tool is meant to allow new designs to be created, simulated and programmed to the targeted PSOC device in hours or days instead of in weeks or months, Cypress said.

Cypress’ PSOC mixed-signal arrays are programmable SOCs that integrate a microcontroller and the analog and digital components that typically surround it in an embedded system. A single device can integrate as many as 100 peripheral functions and a microcontroller, meant to save design time, board space, power consumption and system costs.

“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,” noted George Saul, president of Cypress MicroSystems, in a statement.

“Designers can now create robust, complex SOC solutions quickly and painlessly using PSOC Express,” he said further.

“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,” Saul concluded.

According to the company, designers work within their areas of application expertise to define custom solutions by choosing input and output devices from a catalog, then logically linking them to define system behavior.

Within PSOC Express the designer is able to verify designs through simulation, then generate and download the device-programming file as well as create customized project documentation including a datasheet with register map, interface schematics and bill of materials.

The tool also contains illustrative examples that the designer can learn from, use “as is” or modify to meet specific application requirements, while a proprietary application generation engine linked transparently to the PSOC Designer low-level code generator utilizes a catalog including real-world-device drivers, transfer functions and communication protocols like I2C and RS232, all of which are combined visually by the designer to build custom solutions.

Cypress said it plans to release quarterly catalog updates and would release a complete content developer’s guide to enable third parties to generate PSOC Express content.

PSOC Express is available today at no charge from Cypress’ Web site.