Communication Solutions

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation has introduced the new PSoC NV family, which combines the design capabilities of PSoC architecture with non-volatile static random access memory (nvSRAM) in a single package. These PSoC NV devices integrate configurable analog and digital circuits and provide both design revision feature and component count savings.

 

The PSoC NV family of devices has a powerful analog front-end that is capable of simultaneously sampling up to eight inputs from sensors and analog sources. The data is stored in the embedded nvSRAM. These devices serve applications that require continuous data logging from sensors, analog and digital inputs. During power failure, regular operation accesses are directed to an SRAM array and secured into a non-volatile quantum trap cell.

 

Robert Dunnigan, vice president of non-volatile products business unit at Cypress, said, “The PSoC architecture offers integration and flexibility advantages over other embedded control offerings, and nvSRAMs deliver superior performance compared to other non-volatile memories. The PSoC NV family delivers both of these functions in an integrated solution that serves as a ‘black box’ for industrial controls, servers, and other applications.”

 

The data logging feature of the PSoC NV family of devices allow field diagnostics and failure mode analysis. This helps clients in identifying problems faster and reducing the system downtime. A number of applications like voltage monitoring, voltage sequencing, thermal management, on-board diagnostics, power management, fan control, industrial data logging and sequence of events monitoring can be performed by these devices.

 

Non-volatile SRAMs are being used in the PSoC NV family because they reduce board space and design complexity when compared to battery packed SRAMs. Also Non-volatile SRAMs are more economical and reliable than magnetic or ferroelectric memories. PSoC devices, which are controlled by an on-chip microcontroller include up to 32Kbytes of flash memory, 2Kbytes of SRAM, an 8x8 (News - Alert) multiplier, power and sleep monitoring circuits and hardware I2C communications. PSoC devices are also dynamically reconfigurable which enables designers morph internal resources on-the-fly.

 

The following two kits have been launched by Cypress to support the PSoC NV family.

PSoC NV Demonstration Kit: It demonstrates the fail-safe data logging feature in an event monitoring and diagnostics application. The device will sample and log data from multiple analog channels. In the event of a power failure, data can be retrieved through a plug-and-play interface which allows the reconstruction of events that led to a power failure.

 

PSoC NV Evaluation Kit: Developers are able to experiment with the mixed-signal and data logging features by using this platform. The kit has a fan module for temperature sensing and fan control applications.