Future of PSoC Creator?

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RaAl_264636
Level 6
Level 6
50 sign-ins 25 sign-ins 10 solutions authored

Hi,

it's been a while since the last update. I wonder if Cypress is still working on updates or if there's a new tool or something like that coming. I hope a Cypress member can provide more information about this.

Regards

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9 Replies
Len_CONSULTRON
Level 9
Level 9
Beta tester 500 solutions authored 1000 replies posted

RaAl,

I've worked with Creator for many years now.  IMHO it is a superior tool.

Although not perfect, the forum and Cypress staff have usually found work-arounds for most issues.

Performing a search in related forums and the KBA forum may come up with a solution.   If none found. it is usually appropriate to post a question in this specific forum.

I'm not an Infineon/Cypress employee.  They can more directly speak to your inquiry.

Len
"Engineering is an Art. The Art of Compromise."
RaAl_264636
Level 6
Level 6
50 sign-ins 25 sign-ins 10 solutions authored

Hi Len,

I fully agree with you. Creator is a very good tool. I'm just curious if there'll be a new update coming up or if they're working on a new tool.

Regards

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RaAl,

It is my understanding at this time that ModusToolBox is the current tool of choice.  However, at this time it only supports PSoC6s and some PsoC4s.

Len
"Engineering is an Art. The Art of Compromise."
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RaAl_264636
Level 6
Level 6
50 sign-ins 25 sign-ins 10 solutions authored

Hi Len,

currently I'm not working with PSoC 6, might be the case in the future. Last time I checked PSoC 6 tools, Modus didn't support UDBs and some other things. So depending on project you've to use Creator, but in this case you can't use features of Modus. I don't know if this is still the case.

Regards

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RaAl,

There are some PSoC6s that have up to 12 UDBs.  These devices can be designed in either Creator or Modus.  However, as you pointed out, there is no UDB design support in Modus.

Len
"Engineering is an Art. The Art of Compromise."
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ricardoquesada
Level 4
Level 4
First solution authored 50 sign-ins 25 replies posted

+1

On the one hand, the PLD editor and everything related to the Diginal/Analog features are good. 

On the other hand, software-wise, it needs improvement, like:

- Code navigation: go to function definition, go to function implementation, who is calling me, etc.

-  Git integration

- Better indentation support. Auto-indent doesn't always work correctly.

- Better default fonts

- Code auto-formatting...

- Dark mode

- ... and I can go on...

- Nice to have:  ship with a more modern gcc toolchain

 

To overcome those limitations, what I do, is open VSCode and edit my code from there.

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RaAl_264636
Level 6
Level 6
50 sign-ins 25 sign-ins 10 solutions authored

Sorry for the late reply.

@Len:
So, what's the benfit of Modus? I assume BLE stacks etc. and other special features of PSoC6 are only maintained in Modus, right?
So, there must be something on the way to enable both special features and UDBs of PSoC6, I assume. Otherwise you're lost if you need both.

@Ricardo:
Nice idea to use VS for code editing, will try that 🙂

Regards

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RaAl,

To make a long story not too long ...

PSoC Creator was an evolution of two other PSoC IDEs.  PSoC Designer and PSoC Express.

PSoC Designer was created to allow users access to the UDB-like features and Analog routing features of the PSoC1.

PSoC Express was a short-lived IDE that "simplified" the PSoC1 experience.  It included a schematic-like editor which eventually becomes the TopDesign in Creator.

When the PSoC3 and PSoC5 was conceived with advanced fixed resources, UDB (PLD) and analog routing, the IDEs needed to be enhanced.  Hence: Creator.

Creator is a very sophisticated IDE with sub-features to make better use of the SoC resources that most other processors do not have.

Question: "...what's the benfit of Modus?' Modus is built on Eclipse IDE.  Eclipse is an advance IDE (better ... ?)  Using an externally supported IDE reduces the Infineon resources needed to maintain or update this critical piece of SW in the PSoC ecosystem.  

To bring Creator up to the level provided by Modus and keep the current feature set and upgrade them is a significant effort.

If you look at Infineon's newer product offerings, they are PSoC4's and PSoC6s without UDBs.  In general these variants have only fixed resources.  The closest these products come to the flexibility is some digital and analog routing (limited) and SmartIO which mimics UDBs in a limited way.

Although Infineon has hinted to possibly bringing some Creator features to Modus, there is no definite statement to do so.

I am in general a PSoC enthusiast.  As an engineer who had to design logic interface circuits externally to the CPU, I appreciate the flexibility the UDB resources provide.  

However I can also see the 'logic' of finding difficulty of marketing such a product at a competitive cost.

Len
"Engineering is an Art. The Art of Compromise."
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RaAl_264636
Level 6
Level 6
50 sign-ins 25 sign-ins 10 solutions authored

Hi Len,

oh, nerver heared about Express, I only knowed about Designer and Creator. Regarding Eclipse based IDEs, I'm not a friend of them. Might be that it saves ressources, but all Eclipse IDEs I worked with have been slow, the integration of the target device(s) was poor and/or they crashed regularly. And a separate install of several GBytes for each manufacturer was needed.

Note that my last touch with an Eclipse IDE was years ago, so stability, integration and maybe speed might be way better now. Speed and size are because of the complexity and feature set of Eclipse, I think. Target integration and crashes might be either more related to the manufacturers programming skills for Eclipse or Eclipse is simply not the best platform for embedded devices, don't know.

Regarding products with integrated programmable logic, I think Infineon should push those. More UDBs, and maybe an update to the existing UDB structure as well. I see that it might be harder to market such products and/or produce them at a competitive price. But if they decide to drop UDBs, etc for future products, I think it will be even harder for them. What will be left? I don't know much details about Infineon FMx MCUs and their features, therefore I'd say they're just normal MCUs and there are other vendors also manufacturing "normal" MCUs.

Regards