BICOM selects Cypress PSoC PSoC solution for hot new wireless audio device

SAN JOSE, USA: Cypress Semiconductor Corp. announced that BICOM Inc., developers of innovative DSP solutions for telecommunications and consumer electronics products, has chosen the PSoC for its playGo USB premium wireless audio solution.

BICOM’s playGo streams audio wirelessly, connecting digital music files to any traditional entertainment system. It’s ideal for streaming from iTunes, Rhapsody, Pandora, Netflix and more. PSoC is utilized in both the transmitter and receiver parts of the two-piece playGo system. The PSoC in the transmitter controls an RGB LED, a wireless RF module, and a sample rate converter. The PSoC in the receiver operates the same controls, as well as an infrared receiver and six CapSense buttons for playback controls.

BICOM’s primary design focus and the market differentiators for playGo are sonic performance and ease of use. playGo’s unique wireless protocol works independently of other wireless networks and operates free from the interference that plagues other solutions. The simple to use playGo lets users skip the complex set-up of competitive systems (there is no software to install). It streams in real-time and can be used in as many as four rooms simultaneously.

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.

“BICOM’s focus in creating playGo was high-fidelity audio and ease-of-use for the consumer,” said Ekin Binal, president of BICOM. “The flexibility and integration of PSoC with its CapSense functionality, allowed us to deliver a great product in a convenient and attractive form factor.”

“It’s exciting to see PSoC in this type of technology,” said Gahan Richardson, VP of Cypress’s PSoC Business Unit. “The ability to integrate multiple functions and features in a single chip is only one of many benefits of the PSoC approach. PSoC also speeds time-to-market, and lets engineers make critical changes at any time in the product life cycle. That’s why PSoC is in literally thousands of devices.”