Doubts Regarding PSoC

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Can i get good explanation how PSoC is best than FPGA and Microcontroller ???..

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Bob_Marlowe
Level 10
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PSoCs consist of four different parts:

   

 

   

A microcontroller (not to be found in every FPGA)

   

A versatile amount of digital resources (like in every FPGA)

   

A large amount of analog resources (not to be found in ANY FPGA)

   

A wide spectrum of communication interfaces (part of, but rarely all in an FPGA)

   

 

   

Together with a sophisticated design-software and more than 100 pre-defined usermodules ready to be placed and get wired on a schematic the time-to-market is drastically reduced for a design. Furthermore, due to the analog parts, analog processing and signal conditioning will be on the dighital chip as well, reducing BOM, board space and realibility.

   

As you can see, PSoCs are superior to "simple" FPGAs

   

... and that's not all:

   

Within a PSoC3,4 or 5 are up to 24 UDBs ("Universal Digital Block") . Each of them contains 2 FIFOs, a handfull of working registers a programmable ALU, shifter and some more stuff.

   

All this can (but do not have to!)be programmed in VeriLog.

   

 

   

Do you still have any doubt?

   

Bob

   

 

   

PS

   

I'm sure to have forgotten some arghments, there are so many

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ETRO_SSN583
Level 9
Level 9
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If you can "summarize" the type of designs you are doing the forum

   

can give you a more focused answer to your question.

   

 

   

For example if you want to do an analog data gathering system, present it

   

on a QVGA TFT, filter the input signals, and collect them into an SDCARD

   

as well as upload them to PC via USB. PSOC outstanding for this.

   

 

   

If you wanted to do a 1080P MPEG compressor, and perform image recognition

   

real time on the video streams, FPGA would most likely be a better choice.

   

 

   

So if you provide a litte more info the forum can assist you better.

   

 

   

One last observation, PSOC 1 family has extensive configuration capabilities

   

because of its register based architecture. Also true in 3/5,a tad less documented

   

in the latter. This means under code you can create a startup application with many

   

capabilties, then "tear it down" and instantiate a totally new architecture, all under code

   

control. This includes routes, analog settings, pin usage, digital block functionality and

   

settings........ etc..

   

 

   

Regards, Dana.

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ETRO_SSN583
Level 9
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One last observation.

   

 

   

The "newer" famiies are based on ARM Cortex. As you are well aware the semiconductopr

   

industry has largely settled on ARM as a core processor, more than any other architecture.

   

Many vendors essentially abandoning their own proprietary architectures and expanding

   

thier ARM offerings. That being said the user community, acrtivity, help, is enourmous and

   

growing much more rapidly than any other "vendor" on the planet. That's just a fact.

   

 

   

So merge analog, FPGA, ASIC, PLD, Processor world and you have a PSOC. The tools in

   

all the familes supported by tons of APIs to make them drag/copy/drop design methodology.

   

After all todays designs are typically 90% software, 10% hardware in effort expended. And

   

a large community using the APIs = robustness of code and the minimization of error in your

   

designs.

   

 

   

Regards, Dana.

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Thank you Bob and Dana.....I have one more doubt , if we are doing a project lets say "Wireless Sensor Network" on PSoC and we succeed in getting outputs on that, if i want to apply this("Wireless Sensor Network")  some where i can't keep the whole PSoC kit over there. My question is after getting the output on the kit what will be the next step in applying .

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ETRO_SSN583
Level 9
Level 9
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Thank you Bob and Dana.....I have one more doubt , if we are doing a project lets say "Wireless Sensor Network" on PSoC and we succeed in getting outputs on that, if i want to apply this("Wireless Sensor Network")  some where i can't keep the whole PSoC kit over there. My question is after getting the output on the kit what will be the next step in applying .

   

 

   

Assuming you did it with Cypress wireless, you can always use their radio  boards,

   

www.cypress.com/, if low volume, and use these in your design. If your end product is

   

high volume then you do your own board layout for PSOC and Cypress Radio.

   

 

   

Regards, Dana.

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Bob_Marlowe
Level 10
Level 10
First like given 50 questions asked 10 questions asked

The development kits Dana mentioned are very useful to build a proof-of-concept and even to build a single solution, but you ought to keep in mind what they are: DEVELOPMENT kits. They are built to show a maximum of the capabilities of the PSoC devices and to introduce the Star-Network which allows a communication with multiple transmitters. To unpack and install the first few examples and have them to display the results on your PC is a matter of less than an hour! Sitting in front of the PC and watching everything running so fine can take longer.

   

 

   

Bob

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ETRO_SSN583
Level 9
Level 9
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The CyFi kits include gerbers should you want to lay out your own boards

   

for a volume product.

   

 

   

www.cypress.com/

   

 

   

Regards, Dana.

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Anonymous
Not applicable

 Thank you Bob and Dana.....I have one more doubt , if we are doing a project lets say "Wireless Sensor Network" on PSoC and we succeed in getting outputs on that, if i want to apply this("Wireless Sensor Network")  some where i can't keep the whole PSoC kit over there. My question is after getting the output on the kit what will be the next step in applying .

   
    
   
   
        
   
    Next step is the same as with any other microcontroller device.   
   
        
   
    Development kits are usefull to develop software and to make quick proof of concept prototypes.   
   
    After the first prototype on a dev kit is complete and has been aproved. you usually design your own board based on your especific application requirements, choosing the right device for your application (it's not a good idea to use a top of the line psoc5 on a design using just a few UDBs)   
   
        
   
    A good help to this can be found on      AN61290 - PSoC® 3 and PSoC 5LP Hardware Design Considerations   
   
        
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