Component datasheets are now available online for the Chinese and Japanese languages in addition to the English versions previously available.

You can view these translated datasheets by right-clicking on them in the Component Catalog and selecting Open Component Webpage or by clicking Help->Documentation and either Japanese or Chinese Language. Components are "virtual chips" represented by an icon in the PSoC Creator IDE and as such require the same amount of detailed information as discrete ICs about their implementation, APIs and theory of operation to enable you to take advantage of the capabilities they provide. Further, in a future release of PSoC Creator we will enable you to install the Chinese or Japanese versions of the component datasheets along with the tool simplifying access to this documentation. If you have any feedback along the way, please contact us at psoc_creator_feedback@cypress.com.

The interrupt controllers of PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 are very similar. If you expect the standard and very basic 8051 interrupt controller in the PSoC 3, be surprised. Programming the interrupts is simple by using the APIs within PSoC Creator. The Application Note AN54460 provides examples, additional information how to use the NVIC interrupt controller. It describes the differences and usage of edge triggered versus level triggered interrupts but also goes deeper into re-entrancy. That much information up front, PSoC 3 interrupts default to not re-entrant while PSoC 5 interrupts default to re-entrant. If you are planning to build your system schedule around interrupt priorities this is a must read Application Note!

As a new user to PSoC devices and PSoC Creator you might find it somewhat mind boggling to deal with programmable logic, programmable analog and on top of this with a sub processor capable of handling digital filters. Cypress offers numerous documents which explain how to handle digital filters as this is not a trivial task and there is also a previous Peripheral of The Month dealing with Digital Filters. The latest source of information is a series of PSoC Today shows where Dave and Kendall talk about the implementation used for PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 in PSoC Creator.

If you have not done so lately it is probably about time to visit the Cypress Developer Community again. This community has lots of great members ready to help when questions come up. Recently Cypress executed a couple promotions, giving development kits out as prices. One of the promotions was a solutions contest. We asked the forum members to post their unique to PSoC solutions and create a short video. Check out the winners who put in some great applications. HLI's contributions are highly sophisticated and they are the results of countless evening hours. DiodeDan's contribution is an analog multiplexer involving analog switches and DMA. Have fun with the videos and take it as an invitation to show off your own designs because you can do things with PSoC that you just cannot do with a regular microcontroller!

This new feature is most important to new and inexperienced users because starting with PSoC Creator 2.1 you don't have to start with an empty design canvas any more. Once Creator is open go to "File -- New -- Project" in PSoC Creator 2.1. The tool offers 6 Starter Designs for PSoC 3 and PSoC 5. It is easier to write a program around a proven solution template, so try it out, become more productive faster. That is what PSoC Creator is all about; productivity, short time to market, easy hardware / software co-development and unique solutions.

Read more about Starter Designs in the Release Notes of PSoC Creator 2.1