Cypress Offers New HI-TECH Compiler With Free “Lite” Mode For Both PSoC Designer™ and PSoC Express™ Design Environments

New HI-TECH C® PRO for the PSoC® Mixed Signal Array ANSI C Compiler Offers Designers Seamless Upgrade Path


San Jose, Calif.-Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY) and HI-TECH Software today announced that version 9.61 of the HI-TECH C® PRO compiler for the PSoC® Mixed-Signal Array family is available for all customers. This new version includes a new “Lite” mode that designers can use free of charge without any time or code-size limits usually associated with free compilers. The new compiler is compatible with both the PSoC Designer™ and PSoC Express™ development tools from Cypress. Users can download the latest PSoC Designer software at www.cypress.com/psocdesigner and the latest PSoC Express software at www.cypress.com/psocexpress." The latest update to PSoC Express automatically installs the new HI-TECH compiler.

The HI-TECH C Lite mode allows seamless migration of designs to the full-featured HI-TECH C PRO compiler, which includes Omniscient Code Generation™. OCG can reduce code size by up to 50 percent over standard compilers. Users can now use the Lite mode free, with no risk, and then upgrade to the PRO compiler later if more compact code is desired. HI-TECH has also enabled the compiler to be activated as a 45-day evaluation version for its PRO compiler. The new compiler can be separately downloaded from HI-TECH software at www.cypress.htsoft.com.

“We are offering all users that choose to design with the flexibility of PSoC Designer-as well as those who prefer our code-free PSoC Express environment-long-term support of a free, professional compiler with no risk,” said Jon Pearson, product marketing director for Development Tools at Cypress.“ ”Now every engineer using PSoC devices can work in C language, which is more efficient and productive than assembly language"

About PSoC Designer
PSoC Designer (www.cypress.com/psocdesigner) helps users harness the power and flexibility of PSoC devices by providing “drag and drop” system design capability.“ This powerful, easy-to-use IDE comes with pre-configured, pre-characterized embedded peripheral functions called user modules and extensive user assistance in the form of ”help" dialog boxes, pull-down menus and other graphical user interface aids.

User modules take the configurable PSoC devices and create useful functions as diverse as counters, timers and PWMs, analog converters, both ADCs and DACs, communications links like UARTs, SPI and I2C, as well as comparators, programmable gain blocks, filters and even bootloaders. Each User Module includes the hardware configuration data, startup code, an interrupt service routine when required, and a set of APIs. These APIs, or application programming interface software functions, provide instant control of all aspects of the user module. This innovative approach helps the designer get to a fully functional custom device without weeks or months of tiresome datasheet scouring, tedious low-level coding and repetitive debugging. For example, Cypress released two new CapSense user modules last week that implement optimized capacitive sensing algorithms.

About PSoC Express
PSoC Express (www.cypress.com/psocexpress) is the first easy-to-use development tool that allows system engineers to develop microcontroller-based designs without any Assembly language or C programming. By operating at a higher level of abstraction and not requiring firmware development, PSoC Express enables new designs to be created, simulated and programmed to the targeted PSoC device in hours or days instead of in weeks or months" With built-in support for portability, seamless multi-processing, design visualization and a rich content library, designs can be created faster and with higher reliability using PSoC Express.

With PSoC Express, designers work within their areas of application expertise, defining a custom solution by choosing input and output devices from a catalog, and then logically linking them to define system behavior. For example, a user can select temperature sensors, voltage inputs, fans, LEDs, and then define temperature regions for fan operation, voltage monitor thresholds and “sequence-on” logic. Within PSoC Express the designer is able to verify designs through simulation, then generate and download the device-programming file. The tool allows users to target the design to any of Cypress’s PSoC devices. It also creates customized project documentation including a datasheet with register map, interface schematics, and bill of materials. Without writing any microcontroller code, designers implement reliable, custom applications faster than they can write the requirements.