ARM-Based MCUs Offer Configurable Analog and Digital Blocks

Microcontrollers (MCUs) were systems on a chip long before the SoC moniker took hold, and the allure was the integrated set of peripherals that targeted specific applications. Cypress Semiconductor tool the SoC concept further with is PSoC® product family, which has integrated configurable analog and digital functional blocks on an MCU. Now embedded systems teams have access to the latest PSoC 5 family, which is the first ARM-based version of the technology, along with the development tools.

Cypress announced the PSoC 5 and PSoC 3 families last fall. Prior to those announcements, the original PSoC was based on proprietary Cypress CPU. The PSoC 5 is based on the ARM Cortex-M3 core, while the PSoC 3 is based on the venerable 8051 core. Both products offer design teams a familiar MCU architecture along with the configurable function blocks.

Cypress presents PS0C as a layered architecture. The base layer is the MCU and standard blocks such as SRAM, flash, clocks, USB, and I²C. The middle layer consists of arrays of analog and digital blocks, and the top layer includes the programmable routing and interconnect functions along with external ports.

Embedded design teams can leverage the configurable blocks to create high-level functions. Cypress also offers a library of prebuilt functions. The analog blocks include switch capacitors, op amps, comparators, ADCs, DACs, and digital-filter blocks. The PLD-like digital logic blocks support the creation of logic functions with widths to 32 bits.

The prebuilt library includes both digital and analog functions. For example, the library contains many different timer, counter, and multiplexer functions. On the analog side, you will find complex filters and a variety of data-converter implementations.

Cypress recently announced the initial availability of the CY8C55xxx PSoC5 family. This ARM product has been broadly anticipated because of the burgeoning popularity of the ARM family in general and the Cortex-M3 core specifically.

The Cortex-M3 is ARM’s core that targets highly deterministic, real-time applications. Application targets include automotive body systems, industrial control systems, and wireless networking and sensors. The core relies on the Thumb-2 instruction set, which includes 16-bit versions of the most commonly used 32-bit instructions to deliver smaller code footprints.

The Cypress Cortex-M3 implementation delivers 100 Dhrystone MIPS. The 8-bit 8051 in the PSoC 3 family delivers 33 Dhrystone MIPS. The PSoC 3 and 5 families include similar rosters of on-chip capabilities. Design teams can implement a delta-sigma ADC with 20-bit resolution. You can implement as many as four 8-bit DACs. On the digital side, the ICs support 32-bit timers, counters, and PWMs.

With samples of the PSoC 5 now shipping, Cypress is also offering developer resources for the new family, including an IDE (integrated development environment) and two development kits.

Cypress has released a version of its Creator™ PSoC IDE for the ARM-based products. In most cases, the term IDE refers to a software development tool. In the case of Creator, the term includes both software development and hardware configuration capabilities. Creator integrates schematic capture capability that allows the designer to create hardware configurations. The IDE comes with a catalog of existing components.

From the software perspective, Creator includes the editor, compiler, and debugger suite similar to those that design teams would use in any MCU products. However, the Creator allows the hardware and software aspect of the design to proceed simultaneously.

To jumpstart development projects, Cypress is offering both the PSoC 5 FirstTouch™ Starter Kit and the CY8CKIT-010 PSoC Cy8C55 Family Process Module Kit. You must also purchase the processor module for the latter kit.

The FirstTouch kit is targeted at introducing design engineers to the PSoC 5 family. The kit includes a variety of sensors such as an accelerometer, thermistor, proximity sensor, and CapSense® (Cypress’ touch-sensing user interface technology) module. The starter kit includes the Creator software.

The CY8CKit-010 kit actually includes support for the entire PSoC family and includes Creator. The modular design includes a development board and separate processor modules. You also get a MiniProg3 debug and evaluation device as well as a prototyping cable kit. Both kits come with sample projects.