New PSoC® Power Monitoring and Fan Control Solutions Simplify System Design and Deliver Highest Reliability for Telecom, Server and Storage Markets

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ:CY) has released an extension to its revolutionary PSoC Creator™ Integrated Design Environment (IDE) for the PSoC^® 3 and PSoC 5 programmable system-on-chip families. Known as a “Component Pack,” the update includes new functions for Power Monitoring and Fan Control. Customers can easily “drag and drop” these functions into existing PSoC devices to realize new capabilities within their designs.

Components are “virtual” chips represented by an icon in Cypress’s PSoC Creator software that are dragged and dropped into a design. Each component is fully tested and characterized to accelerate time-to-market for customers. Cypress releases Component Packs that provide new components as well as upgrades to existing components approximately every eight weeks. A Component Pack updates an existing PSoC Creator installation while keeping the core functionality of the design environment unchanged.

Component Pack 3 adds a new Power Monitor component that simplifies voltage and current measurements on power rails. Up to 32 DC power rails can be monitored using a PSoC 3 device at 0.5% accuracy. The Power Monitor component simplifies the complex configuration of the ADC, clock frequencies, resolutions and ranges by abstracting the underlying analog front end and firmware code into a simple graphical user interface (GUI). System designers enter voltage and current ranges into this GUI, click the “build” button and can start measuring power rails within minutes on the PSoC Power Management Expansion Board Kit (CY8CKIT-035).

The new Fan Controller component provides the capability to independently control up to 16 industry standard 3-wire and 4-wire brushless DC fans through a simple GUI tool. The Fan Controller component generates Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) outputs for fan speed control and accepts variable-frequency tachometer inputs from the fans to enable measurement of fan rotational speeds. This component also comes with advanced fan control algorithms that reduce fan noise and regulate fan speeds even as airflow and fan loads vary which can be prototyped and developed using the PSoC Thermal Management Expansion Board Kit (CY8CKIT-036).

These new components enable highly reliable, hardware-based solutions for the telecommunications, server and storage markets where reliability is critical. A detailed datasheet and video is available for each of these components on Cypress’s website. Details for the Fan Control component are at http://www.cypress.com/go/comp_FanController and for the Power Monitor component at http://www.cypress.com/go/comp_PowerMonitor.

Further details on the two kits available to prototype, evaluate and develop these Power and Thermal Management solutions are available online at http://www.cypress.com/go/CY8CKIT-035 or http://www.cypress.com/go/CY8CKIT-036.

“With the easy-to-use graphical interface in PSoC Creator, customers can quickly customize a power monitoring and thermal management design that meets their unique system requirements all in one integrated device,” said Jim Davis, Sr. Product Marketing Manager for Cypress.

Availability

A free download of Component Pack 3 for existing PSoC Creator 2.0 users is available now at www.cypress.com/go/psoccreator. Users downloading PSoC Creator 2.0 for the first time will automatically receive the Component Pack. Going forward, registered users will receive alerts when new Component Packs are released.

About PSoC Creator

PSoC Creator is a revolutionary graphical design tool that allows users to customize the PSoC device to their unique system requirements in minutes. The design environment includes a rich library of fully tested and characterized analog and digital components that can be drag-and-dropped into a design and configured to suit a broad array of application requirements. The tool automatically places components into the PSoC device, routes all on-chip signals and directs I/O to the optimum pins. Each peripheral component is carefully parameterized so that the implementation is automatically optimized to fit the developer’s needs perfectly with no wasted resources. The build process generates a consistently-named set of APIs for each component that allows the software developer to control the hardware without knowing the underlying register set. Customized designs, and their associated APIs, can even be saved in a library for future reuse and easily shared within an organization. With PSoC Creator, customers create designs according to application requirements, not the limitations of the target device. Re-targeting to new devices is as simple as rebuilding an application, so porting designs between PSoC devices becomes a snap, including migrating working designs seamlessly from 8- to 32-bit devices.

PSoC -- Because Change Happens

PSoC devices employ a highly configurable system-on-chip architecture for embedded control design, offering a flash-based equivalent of a field-programmable ASIC without lead-time or NRE penalties. PSoC devices integrate configurable analog and digital circuits, controlled by an on-chip microcontroller, providing both enhanced design revision capability and component count savings. A single PSoC device can integrate as many as 100 peripheral functions saving customers design time, board space and power consumption while improving system quality and reducing system cost.

The flexible PSoC resources allow designers to future-proof their products by enabling firmware-based changes during design, validation, production, and in the field. The unique PSoC flexibility shortens design cycle time and allows for late-breaking feature enhancements. All PSoC devices are also dynamically reconfigurable, enabling designers to morph internal resources on-the-fly, utilizing fewer components to perform a given task. More information about PSoC products is available at www.cypress.com/psoc and free online training is at www.cypress.com/psoctraining.

About Cypress

Cypress delivers high-performance, mixed-signal, programmable solutions that provide customers with rapid time-to-market and exceptional system value. Cypress offerings include the flagship PSoC^® 1, PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 programmable system-on-chip families and derivatives, CapSense^® touch sensing and TrueTouch^® solutions for touchscreens. Cypress is the world leader in USB controllers, including the high-performance West Bridge^® solution that enhances connectivity and performance in multimedia handsets, PCs and tablets. Cypress is also the world leader in SRAM memories. Cypress serves numerous markets including consumer, mobile handsets, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial and military. Cypress trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol CY. Visit Cypress online at www.cypress.com.

Cypress, the Cypress logo, PSoC, CapSense, West Bridge and TrueTouch are registered trademarks and PSoC Creator is a trademark of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. All other trademarks are property of their owners.