Breaking News: Analog PSoC Family

Oct. 27, 2003

An enhanced family of analog programmable-systems-on-a-chip (PSoCs) can handle rail-to-rail inputs and perform 14-bit analog-to-digital conversion (up to four independent converters on one chip), each with exceptionally low-noise, low-input-leakage, and low-voltage offsets. An on-chip, 8-bit, 24-MHz microcontroller provides an extended set of digital control functions.

Over 100 reconfigurable analog and digital library components can be created from the 12 fundamental analog blocks and eight digital blocks included in the CY8C27X PSoC chip family. The microcontroller includes 16 kbytes of flash, 256 bytes of SRAM, an 8- by 8-bit multiplier with 32-bit accumulator, power-monitoring and sleep-monitoring circuits, and a precision real-time clock. The high clock speed and 8-bit MAC allow the controller to handle basic DSP algorithms like those needed in control loops and signal-recovery filtering.

The CY3205-DK development kit supports the new PSoC chips. Included is a full-speed emulator with a large trace buffer. Moreover, the kit integrates seamlessly with the PSoC Designer 4.0 Software development tool to provide a complete development environment. The kit costs $399, while the new PSoC family members sell for as little as $1.99 in 50,000-unit quantities.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp.www.cypressmicro.com

See associated figure

About the Author

Dave Bursky

Technologist

Dave Bursky, the founder of New Ideas in Communications, a publication website featuring the blog column Chipnastics – the Art and Science of Chip Design. He is also president of PRN Engineering, a technical writing and market consulting company. Prior to these organizations, he spent about a dozen years as a contributing editor to Chip Design magazine. Concurrent with Chip Design, he was also the technical editorial manager at Maxim Integrated Products, and prior to Maxim, Dave spent over 35 years working as an engineer for the U.S. Army Electronics Command and an editor with Electronic Design Magazine.