Cypress expands offering of PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 free online training and informational resources

SAN JOSE, USA: Cypress Semiconductor Corp. has announced several new online training modules and videos about its PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 programmable system-on-chip architectures and PSoC Creator integrated development environment (IDE).

The six new online training modules join the four existing modules available at www.cypress.com/psoctraining to provide engineers with in-depth training on the PSoC 3, PSoC 5 and PSoC Creator offerings. The modules teach engineers how to take advantage of the high-precision analog, programmable digital and high-performance cores and CPU subsystems through a combination of lecture and hands-on labs.

Cypress has also published two new videos: “Creating Custom Components in PSoC Creator” and “Creating an Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) LCD Project.” The videos are available at www.cypress.com/go/psocvideos. Additional resources include 34 example projects using PSoC 3, available at www.cypress.com/go/psocprojects, which each allow engineers to learn one specific implementation in the architecture.

“PSoC Creator software enable engineers to design the way they think in a unique schematic-based format,” said Matt Branda, marketing director of PSoC Platform products at Cypress. “These videos and training modules show designers how to use this IDE to get the most flexibility and performance from the PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 devices, and have been well received by the engineering community.” The four existing training modules have been viewed over 8,000 times since the September 2009 launch of the new PSoC architectures.

The six online training modules include the following:

PSoC Creator 110 - Schematic Components
This course gives an introduction to the development of components in the PSoC Creator environment. It covers the basic development of components using a schematic as the implementation methodology. It also includes the generation of symbols and the placement of the component into the component catalog.

PSoC Creator 111 - Component Parameters
This course introduces the usage of parameters as part of the development of a component in PSoC Creator. Parameters allow a single component to have functionality that is specific to an instance of that component. Aspects of component parameters such as validation, enumerated types, and passing parameters to lower level instances are covered.

PSoC Creator 112 - Introduction to Component API Generation
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are used for the CPU to interact with a component in PSoC Creator. This course introduces the generation of APIs within components. APIs often use “Control” and “Status” registers as part of their implementation, so the usage of these registers is described.

PSoC Creator 113 - PLD Based Verilog Components
Verilog is the implementation methodology used to describe the logic that is placed in the PLD portion of the programmable digital architecture used in PSoC 3 and PSoC 5. This course explains the PLD implementation used and the methodology used to map a Verilog description of digital logic to the physical implementation in the hardware. It shows the basic constructs used for both combinatorial and sequential logic in Verilog. It explains the differences introduced by development in Verilog for symbols and parameters.

PSoC 3/PSoC 5 201: Analog Peripherals II
This module builds on the previous analog module (PSoC 3/PSoC 5: 104) and goes into more depth on the analog peripherals that can be implemented in PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 devices using PSoC Creator.

PSoC 3/PSoC 5 106: CapSense Touch Sensing
This module introduces the CapSense touch sensing peripheral of PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 devices that can be implemented using PSoC Creator.

The four existing trainings are:

PSoC 3/PSoC 5 101: Introduction to the Architecture and Design Flow
PSoC 3/PSoC 5 102: Introduction to System Resources
PSoC 3/PSoC 5 103: Introduction to Digital Peripherals
PSoC 3/PSoC 5 104: Introduction to Analog Peripherals.