Cypress and Redpine Signals to provide low-power 802.11n Wi-Fi I/O connectivity for PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 platforms

SAN JOSE, USA: Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and Redpine Signals have jointly developed 802.11a/b/g/n wireless-connectivity solutions that make it easy for system engineers to add low-power, single-stream 802.11n Wi-Fi capability to embedded systems with Cypress's PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 programmable system-on-chip platforms.

These solutions are based on the Connect-io-n modules from Redpine Signals that make it easy to design new systems and upgrade existing products to provide reliable wireless data communications that meet stringent power and high throughput requirements.

With modular certification for FCC standards and equivalent certifications in other regions, these modules enable easy enhancement of PSoC 3- and PSoC 5-based designs with future-proof Wi-Fi 802.11n functionality. A demonstration of the solution can be seen in Redpine's booth (#2126) at Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley, May 2 to 5, in the McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, California.

The Connect-io-n modules work seamlessly with Cypress’s PSoC platforms, which are used extensively in a broad range of embedded system applications. The modules implement single-stream 802.11n connectivity in a smaller space and at lower cost than legacy 802.11b and 802.11g modules.

The Connect-io-n 802.11n modules are self-contained and system designers do not have to have a detailed knowledge of Wi-Fi technology to use them, thus enabling the widespread adoption of Wi-Fi connectivity in embedded systems. Cypress customers can readily integrate the modules into any existing PSoC 3- or PSoC 5-based systems with minimal memory footprint and processor load on the host. The Redpine module products offer SPI and UART interfaces and provide wireless connectivity up to 10Mbps on the SPI interface, or up to 4Mbps on the UART interface.

The new PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 architectures include high-precision programmable analog capability (up to 20-bit resolution for an Analog to Digital Converter) and expanded programmable digital resources integrated with powerful, industry-standard MCU cores and ample memory and communications peripherals. The PSoC 3 devices are based on a new, high-performance 8-bit 8051 processor, while the PSoC 5 devices include a powerful 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3 processor.

The new products provide designers with a seamless, programmable design platform, enabling easy migration from 8 to 32 bits. The robust features of these new solutions dramatically expand the applications and markets that PSoC can address, including automotive, portable medical, industrial and many more.

“Our PSoC design community is showing tremendous interest in adding Wi-Fi connectivity to both existing and new projects,” said Curt Davis, VP of the Cypress Solutions Business Unit. “We have worked closely with Redpine Signals in the integration of Wi-Fi connectivity solutions that achieve high throughput with very low power consumption, while maintaining the ease-of-use and flexibility that our customers expect. We’re pleased to offer PSoC designers easy Wi-Fi connectivity capability with the fully FCC-certified modules from Redpine.”

"Redpine is pleased to collaborate with Cypress to offer an advanced 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity solution for the PSoC platform,” said Venkat Mattela, CEO of Redpine Signals. “Our comprehensive support of the PSoC family includes Wi-Fi companion cards for PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 Development Kits, self-contained modules with minimal code and a complete demo reference design. Our ultra low power single-stream 802.11n solutions provide the ideal connectivity support for both new designs and existing designs migrating to the PSoC platform in applications such as home and industrial automation, medical monitoring, sensor networks, and smart appliances.”

Wi-Fi expansion board kit
Redpine and Cypress have collaborated to provide a Wi-Fi expansion board kit based on the Cypress PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 platforms. This kit (RS-CY8C001-220X) is an expansion board that seamlessly plugs into Cypress CY8CKIT-001 (PSoC Development Kit) or CY8CKIT-030 (PSoC3 Development Kit) which can be purchased from Cypress’s website. .

The Wi-Fi Expansion Board Kit includes an 802.11n expansion board based on the Redpine Connect-io-n module and all necessary example projects and documentation. The Kit will be available for purchase from Redpine’s web site in June, 2011.