Mar 02, 2010
By Bradley Budlong
One of the more powerful aspects of PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 is the ability to use components that encapsulate both hardware and software functionality. Cypress provides a large library of the most common components that you might need (I2C, UART, DAC), but there is no end to the possible components that PSoC 3 and PSoC 5 can support. The Creator platform allows you to develop and use your own components using the same methodology as Cypress engineers.
There are 3 levels of components that a user might want to develop:
- Schematic Component
- Verilog Component
- Datapath Component
Each level gets progressively more involved and more powerful. A schematic based component provides a hierarchical schematic capability. Here you can combine any of the components in the current library and also encapsulate the APIs that go with that combination. With a Verilog based component you have the ability to pull in more complex unique digital content and take direct advantage of the PLDs built into PSoC 3 and 5. The capability to do either Schematic or Verilog based components is in Creator today. The third level, datapath based components, adds to a Verilog component the usage of the datapath resources in PSoC 3 and 5. With datapaths you can create denser designs and more flexibily communicate between your hardware component and the CPU. The ability for customers to take advantage of datapaths in their own components will be made available in Creator with the Beta 5 release due out later this year.
In order to get you started on the right track, I've developed several training classes that each include:
- Video
- Slides
- Example Projects
They are all posted on the Cypress website under the Design Support tab, then Technical Training, then On-Demand Training, or you can skip directly there with the following links:
Then I'll build on this training with some more examples and insights here on the blog.