CYAN TECHNOLOGY LAUNCHES eCOG1—A HIGH-PERFORMANCE, LOW-POWER COMMUNICATIONS ENGINE

(PRWEB) February 8, 2002

February 6, 2002, Cambridge, UK—Cyan Technology Ltd, the Cambridge-based developer of low-power flash microcontrollers based on technology from Cambridge Consultants Limited, today announced the rollout of eCOG1—a 16-bit flash microcontroller specifically designed as a low-power communications engine. eCOG1 is a feature-rich microcontroller targeted at reliable intersystem communications.

Using an innovative 16-bit core originally developed by Cambridge Consultants Limited, Cyan Technology’s new microcontroller offers an impressive ratio of performance to power consumption. The core, based on a compact Harvard RISC architecture, offers a synchronous serial emulation interface that supports nonintrusive application development, debugging, and testing. To address stringent time-to-market requirements, Cyan Technology also provides engineers with a comprehensive development toolkit, complete with an assembler, verified C compiler, software simulator, and in-circuit emulator/debugger that run on Windows 9x/NT/2000.

eCOG1 has a rich assortment of communications peripherals, enabling it to provide mixed vendor communications and operations. Using a plethora of serial interfaces (dual UARTs, dual USARTs, SPI, and IrDA) with IntAct’s 360-Mbps transfer rate placing it well above its competitors, eCOG1 is able to facilitate modern connectivity demands. eCOG1 supports a broad range of eight timers, including a 16-bit real-time clock timer, 24-bit long-interval timer, two 16-bit clock generator timers, and two general-purpose event counter timers, as well as an extensive range of communications interfaces. The eCOG1 supports vectored interrupt handling, a fully programmable Memory Management Unit (MMU), a dynamically adaptable external memory interface capable of managing SDRAM, and analog I/O support with an on-chip temperature sensor and supply voltage monitor.

eCOG1’s low power requirements clinch its communications’ leadership, offering superb power management that extends the battery life of hand-held devices. Multiple power-management routines enable developers to turn peripherals and flash memory on and off as needed. With 16 clock domains, developers have the flexibility to cut power to any peripheral within the chip and, since the clock is completely static, it can be stopped to further maximize power savings—a feature that differentiates the eCOG1 from many other microcontrollers.

“The embedded communications market has come of age, opening up a wide range of new end applications that require high-speed connectivity,” noted David Griffiths, CEO of Cyan Technology. “When developers attempt to solve these problems with traditional microcontrollers, they are forced to compromise power, performance, and time to market. With the launch of eCOG1, Cyan Technology delivers a device that will find its place in many consumer products ranging from PDAs and smart-card readers to intelligent sensors and next-generation Internet-enabled appliances at a price that is appropriate for mass-market applications.”

Filling a gap for embedded communications designers requiring low-power, cost-effective systems, eCOG1 delivers high performance at a fraction of the power used by standard microcontrollers. Using a single-instruction prefetch queue, eCOG1 boasts performance of up to 25 MHz to easily handle the 16-bit math that communications applications require. With a fully configurable MMU and vectored interrupt modes, developers can have available the real-time responsiveness needed for today’s embedded communications devices.

Cyan Technology’s tools are equally strong. To offer developers a foundation, Cyan provides a C compiler, linker, and software simulator. In addition, the eICE debug port allows nonintrusive on-chip debugging of real-time software applications, freeing developers from the typical problems associated with JTAG interfaces. Developers are able to evaluate eCOG1 in real-time applications quickly, thereby shortening development time and costs.

“The demand for connected devices that are sophisticated, enjoy long battery life, and are affordable has exploded in this past year,” noted Bill Giovino, Cyan Technology’s Executive Vice President of Marketing. “To meet this demand, we recognize that developers need connectivity solutions that offer high performance and low power, plus easy evaluation and implementation. eCOG1 gives developers the resources they need to meet the device communications requirements of networked industry and consumer products both now and in the future.”

About Cyan Technology

Cyan Technology (http://www.cyantechnology.com) was formed in 2000 as a spin-off of Cambridge Consultants Ltd (CCL). The company enjoys competitive advantage through its advanced 16-bit technology, which is the result of ten years of research within CCL, significantly enhanced by Cyan’s highly skilled engineering team to address the needs of the embedded communications market.

Within two years of Cyan’s formation, the company has brought to market a low-power 16-bit flash microcontroller with real-time in-circuit emulation.

Cyan’s multipurpose microcontroller offers significant advantages in ease of use, price, performance, and power consumption. This 16-bit product fills a significant gap in the market, offering the processing power required for embedded communications applications at less cost and lower power requirements than 32-bit processors, thereby reducing system cost and extending battery life. The chip’s unique features make it particularly suited to hand-held battery-powered applications, such as PDAs and web-enabled phones, plus a whole range of embedded communications devices, such as set-top boxes, Internet-enabled appliances and intelligent sensors.

Cyan’s chips enable developers of electronic products to deliver goods with highly sophisticated functionality at prices previously unachievable.