Just purchased a Cypress Semiconductor PSoC 3 First Touch Kit (FTK). PSoC stands for 'Programmable System-On-Chip'. PSoC technology is an expansion of the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology with the addition of analog functions. The Cypress line of PSoC devices are amazing devices and I am very interested in seeing what these can do for me.
The Cypress PSoC 3 line includes, in a single chip a very fast 8051 processor core with substantial additional digital function blocks and (here is where it gets very interesting) substantial analog function blocks. Add to this modest cost, easy programmability and a very comprehensive set of GUI design tools and we are talking some serious fun time! Setting up the digital and analog functions is done with a graphical front end with a 'drag and drop' for a large menu of predefined modules. You drop the modules into a schematic, configure the modules, 'wire' them up, tie them to analog and digital output pins, write some C code to tie everything together, 'build' the project (i.e. compile the C code and the functional routing), download it to the FTK and away you go.
I just started with my new kit and finally succeeded in creating my first workable test project - a very simple one! Had a bit of a fuss getting past some ackwardness in the documentation but I'm on my way. More to come!
