Cypress approaches 1 billionth PSoC unit shipment

SAN JOSE, USA: Cypress Semiconductor Corp. is nearing the 1 billion unit mark in shipments of its fast-growing programmable system-on-chip (PSoC). The world’s only programmable analog and digital embedded design platform combines analog and digital peripheral controllers with memory on a single piece of silicon, maximizing designers’ flexibility.

To celebrate the event, Cypress has posted an active counter on its website at www.cypress.com. Visitors are invited to guess the exact date and time when Cypress reaches the 1 billion milestone. The winning entry will receive a new NOOK Color eReader with Cypress’s PSoC-based TrueTouch touchscreen controller.

The ramp of PSoC is among the fastest in the history of embedded systems, and continues to accelerate. Commercial-scale shipments began in 2002, and Cypress shipped its 100-millionth unit in 2006. Cypress reached 250 million units in 2007, 500 million units in 2009, and 750 million in the fourth quarter of 2010.

“We’re genuinely excited to reach this milestone, which represents a fantastic achievement for Cypress,” said Christopher Seams, executive VP of Sales and Marketing for Cypress. “PSoC has been the foundation of change for the entire Cypress organization, acting as the centerpiece of our transformation to a supplier of programmable solutions. Reaching a billion units so quickly validates our direction and underscores outstanding execution by our design, manufacturing, marketing, operations and sales teams.”

PSoC’s unique architecture of programmable analog and digital resources integrated with a microcontroller delivers a number of important benefits to system designers, including time-to-market, the ability to react to change, reduced components due to integration, power savings, inventory reduction, and supplier consolidation. All of these benefits are important factors in PSoC’s growth story. The PSoC architecture is also at the core of other Cypress offerings, such as the TrueTouch touchscreen solution, CapSense touch-sensing and PowerPSoC controllers for LED lighting.

The PSoC 3 and 32-bit ARM Cortex-M3-based PSoC 5 families, which deliver unparalleled integration and flexibility across 8-, 16-, and 32-bit applications, dramatically expand the served available market for PSoC products to applications such as industrial products, automotive, medical and more.

Among the thousands of PSoC customers worldwide are market leaders such as HP, Cisco, Motorola, IBM, Honeywell, Samsung, LG, Lenovo, Haier, Acer, HTC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Nintendo, Sharp, Suzuki, Philips, BMW, and Gaggia. PSoC devices are at the heart of a dizzying variety of applications, including home appliances; cell/smart phone set-top box platforms; electric toothbrushes; air cleaners; e-bikes; high-definition televisions; digital cameras; remote-control hobbyist helicopters; computer mice, printers, and other PC peripherals; health and fitness equipment; automobile sound systems, satellite radios, and engine control units; medical equipment; lighting; motorized baby strollers; oscilloscopes; and MP3 players.