Datasheet

1. Introduction

PSoC (Programmable System-on-Chip) is a family of mixed-signal arrays first made by Cypress

MicroSystems (CMS), a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductors. This features a microcontroller and

configurable integrated analog and digital peripherals. PSoC is a software configured, mixed-signal array with a

built-in MCU core. The core is a Cypress proprietary, 8-bit Harvard architecture design called the M8C. PSoC

has three separate memory spaces: paged SRAM for data, Flash memory for instructions and fixed data, and I/O

Registers for controlling and accessing the configurable logic blocks and functions.

The PSoC contains an embedded microcontroller and is used in a wide variety of applications and

market segments, including cell phones, portable media players, laptop computers, PDAs, white goods and

industrial automation. Demand for the PSoC mixed-signal array has quadrupled over the past two quarters,

driven in part by designs in handheld consumer devices. Cypress recently initiated production of PSoC devices

in its high-volume Fab 4 facility in Bloomington, Minn., to keep up with increasing customer demand. PSoC is

also manufactured at Cypress's Fab 2 plant in Round Rock, Texas, and will soon be produced at Grace

Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. as the result of a recent foundry agreement signed with Cypress.

As part of the Cypress Semiconductor’s University Alliance Program, the students of BITS Pilani Goa

Campus gained access to multiple evaluation boards, software tools which can be used to design systems.

Though our technical training makes it possible for us to explore nuances of system specification and design,

there appears to be lack of reading material and experiments specific to first time PSoC users which describes

the system design process.

Further, though many of the individual modules viz. SMP, MAC, Decimator, I2C Controller, Interrupt

Controller, ADC, Amplifiers, Counters, DAC, Filters, PWM, Random Sequence Generators (PRS8,PRS16),

Timers, I2C, SPI, UART, Del-Sigma-ADCs etc have been covered in considerable detail in individual courses

like EEE GC 383 –Communication Systems, ES GC 263 Microprocessor Programming, EEE GC 424 –

Microelectronic Circuits, EEE GC 364 – Analog Electronics, EEE GC 371 – Electromechanical Energy

Conversion, by students at BITS Pilani Goa Campus, no single point of reference exists which introduces

students to the nuances of system design using these components in PSoC Designer Software.