Cypress MicroSystems Announces Advanced Analog Family of Programmable Mixed-Signal Arrays

Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) Devices Combine Low-Power Digital and Instrumentation-Quality Analog Blocks, Flash, SRAM, M8 MCU, Clock--for under $2

Lynnwood, Wash., September 15, 2003 – Cypress MicroSystems Inc., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE: CY), today announced production shipments of an advanced analog family of its award-winning Programmable System-on-Chip^TM (PSoC^TM) mixed-signal array. PSoC devices are high-performance, field-programmable, mixed-signal arrays for high-volume embedded-control functions in consumer, industrial, office automation, telecom and automotive applications.

The new CY8C27x device family provides highly stable, instrumentation-quality analog performance—including rail-to-rail inputs; programmable gain; 14-bit analog-to-digital converters (up to four independent converters are available in a single PSoC device); exceptionally low noise, input leakage and voltage offset, along with rich digital functions including an 8-bit microcontroller core.

Containing over 100 reconfigurable analog and digital library components created from 12 fundamental analog and 8 digital blocks, PSoC CY8C27x devices are true systems on a chip. Each contains a 24 MHz 8-bit microcontroller unit (MCU); 16 kbytes of flash memory; 256 bytes of SRAM; an 8x8 multiplier with 32-bit accumulator; power and sleep monitoring circuits; and a precision real-time clock.

“Customer feedback indicates that PSoC integration saves them money on their bill of materials by reducing the number of analog and digital components they need in their designs,” said George Saul, CEO of Cypress MicroSystems. “They report reductions of 40-60 components in typical applications, resulting in cost savings of $2-6 per board. In addition, PSoC programmability enables them to reduce their development time and get to market faster. The end result is better than a custom solution—it’s cheap, there’s no NRE cost, no waiting, no minimum quantities—and designs are infinitely re-usable.”

“PSoC has proven to be a fast growing architecture for Cypress,” said Tony Massimini of Semico Research (Phoenix, AZ). “The advantages of using PSoC over traditional non-integrated MCUs, non-integrated analog components, and dozens of passives are economically compelling. The addition of higher-quality programmable analog functions extends the application reach of the versatile PSoC architecture into the most demanding embedded markets. Having programmable analog and digital blocks, plus a high-speed MCU, on a $2 chip is a remarkable achievement.”

About PSoC CY8C27x Devices

CY8C27x devices eliminate the need for expensive non-integrated analog components such as instrumentation amplifiers, filters (Bessel, Butterworth, and elliptical—up to eight poles), RMS/DC converters, programmable-gain amplifiers, and thousands of other analog components. With a noise threshold of 70 nV/rtHz and an analog offset voltage of 6 mV digitally trimmed to less than 100 ìV, the enhanced PSoC devices bring the advantage of high-quality analog components to a single, inexpensive, easy-to-program mixed-signal device.

In addition to greatly improved analog performance, the new generation PSoC devices also contain dozens of digital and system-level enhancements, including hardware I²C communications for reduced MCU overhead; increased interconnects for data and clocking; synchronous, asynchronous, and latched deadband modes to enable demanding motor-control applications; logic; and numerous additional I/O modes for improved drive and EMI performance.

With a typical sleep current of just 3 ìA, PSoC offers the lowest power consumption in the industry for flash-based applications. The 3 ìA specification includes operation of the sleep timer, watch dog circuits, and power supervisor functions, all of which are required in most flash-based embedded designs.

About the PSoC Family

Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) devices are high-performance, field-programmable, mixed-signal arrays for high-volume embedded-control functions in consumer, industrial, office automation, telecom and automotive applications. PSoC devices integrate programmable blocks of analog and digital logic, a fast 8-bit MCU, 16 kbytes of flash memory and 256 bytes of SRAM and a media access controller (MAC).

All PSoC devices are dynamically reconfigurable, enabling designers to create new system functions on-the-fly. Re-using the same silicon for different functions on different clock cycles, designers can achieve more than 120% utilization of the die in many cases. The automotive PSoC LIN bus reference design is a good example. The same transistors are re-used four times to support the different LIN communication modes; in doing so, these transistors consume less than 10 percent of PSoC hardware resources and less than 10 percent of the PSoC MCU cycles.

To further shorten design cycles, the PSoC family includes pre-programmed, specialized versions for lighting, energy, motor control, communications, automotive and battery applications. Each family member comes with a reference design and extensive application notes to speed application development.

Family members and plans include:

• The original PSoC device (CY8C25/26x), introduced in 2001, contains 12 analog blocks, eight digital blocks, 16 kbytes of flash memory and 256 bytes of SRAM.
• The enhanced analog PSoC device (CY8C27x), the subject of this announcement, contains the same architecture, but with the analog and digital enhancements cited above.
• Cypress MicroSystems plans to sample its CY8C24x devices—with six analog and four digital blocks, 4 kbytes of flash memory and 256 bytes of SRAM later—in Q403.
• Cypress MicroSystems plans to sample its CY8C22x devices—with three analog and four digital blocks, 2 kbytes of flash memory and 256 bytes of SRAM—in Q103.
• PSoC automotive temperature-qualified devices will be available starting Q403.

Software and Support

The software development environment PSoC Designer 4.0 supports all current PSoC devices as well as future low-cost versions. PSoC Designer 4.0 is a full-featured, GUI-based design tool suite that enables the user to lay out their design on silicon with simple point and click options; code the MCU in either C or assembly language; and debug the design using sophisticated features such as event triggers and multiple break points while single-stepping through the code in C or assembler or a mix of the two. PSoC Designer 4.0 is free and can be downloaded at http://www.cypress.com/support/link.cfm?sd=psocdesigner4beta.

The CY3205-DK Professional Class Development Kit includes a full-speed emulator with a large trace buffer, both of which seamlessly integrate with PSoC Designer 4.0. The development kit includes everything necessary to complete a design with the new PSoC family of ICs in DIP packages; the kits also contain all materials for the first four “Tele-training” modules. The tools are designed to keep the cost of development to a minimum while providing all the features found in tools that cost $2000 or more. The CY3205-DK is priced at $399.

Early training is key to quickly realizing the cost saving and technical benefits of the PSoC architecture. Free “Tele-training” classes are offered live every week, with introductory training classes starting on Friday; sign up for training at www.cypress.com. A Fall and Winter regional seminar series is being scheduled; to find out when a PSoC seminar will held locally go to www.cypress.com/aboutus/events.cfm.

Pricing and Availability

The CY8C27x PSoC family is in production now and contains eight family members ranging from an 8-pin PDIP to a 48-pin MLF/QFN—for as low as $1.99 in 50,000-unit quantities.

About Cypress MicroSystems

Headquartered in Lynnwood, Wash., Cypress MicroSystems develops and markets Programmable System-on-Chip (PSoC) devices – high-performance, field-programmable ICs for high-volume embedded control functions in consumer, industrial, office automation, telecom and automotive applications. Established as a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE: CY) in the fourth quarter of 1999, Cypress MicroSystems’ stockholders are its employees and Cypress Semiconductor. The close association with Cypress Semiconductor allows access to their process and design technology, and field sales and applications forces. More information about Cypress MicroSystems and its products—as well as access to over 100 PSoC applications notes—is available online at www.cypressmicro.com.

About Cypress

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (NYSE: CY) is Connecting From Last Mile to First Mile™ with high-performance solutions for personal, network access, enterprise, metro switch, and core communications-system applications. Cypress Connects™ using wireless, wireline, digital, and optical transmission standards, including USB, Fibre Channel, SONET/SDH, Gigabit Ethernet, and DWDM. Leveraging its process and system-level expertise, Cypress makes industry-leading physical layer devices, framers, and network search engines, along with a broad portfolio of high-bandwidth memories, timing technology solutions, and programmable microcontrollers. More information about Cypress is accessible online at www.cypress.com.

Cypress and the Cypress logo are registered trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. “Connectivity From Last Mile to First Mile” and “Cypress Connects” are trademarks of Cypress. “Programmable System-on-Chip,” PSoC and PSoC Designer are trademarks of Cypress MicroSystems. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.