Cyan Technology Delivers Evaluation Board and Tools for 16-Bit Communications Microcontroller; eCOG1 Development Tools for Low-Power Communications Engine Available.

Business/Technology Editors

CAMBRIDGE, U.K.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 2002

Cyan Technology Ltd, UK-based developers of low-power flash microcontrollers for today's connected devices, is now offering an evaluation board and free software development tools for its first product, the eCOG1 communications engine.

To provide a reliable solution for a wide range of applications ranging from smart-card readers to intelligent sensors and next-generation Internet-enabled devices, Cyan Technology has complemented its feature-rich microcontroller with a comprehensive toolkit, including a macro assembler, ANSI compliant C compiler, software simulator and on-chip real-time in-circuit emulator/debugger interface that supports up to 512 breakpoints. The software tools run on Windows 9x/NT/2000. The eCOG1 evaluation board augments this integrated platform, providing developers with the resources they need to develop and test their application.

Cyan Technology has built on innovative technology originally developed by Cambridge Consultants Limited to create the eCOG1, a high-performance low-power microcontroller with a wide variety of communications peripherals. The eCOG1 development tools enjoy a highly robust and stable environment, brought about by more than eight years of development and feedback.

The software tools are free of charge.

"The demand for next-generation communication devices has skyrocketed," stated David Griffiths, CEO of Cyan Technology. "However, until the launch of eCOG1, embedded communications developers have had very few options for meeting the tight constraints of the consumer-appliance market. We have gone out of our way to give developers a controller and tools that meet the connectivity, performance and power demands of device applications."

Delivering a robust, stable environment, the eCOG1 compiler supports full ANSI/ISO C, including floating-point emulation. Boasting a large C library and complete integration with all eCOG1 tools, the eCOG1 compiler supports mixed C and assembly programming along with source-level debugging using the simulator and emulator debug interface. The compiler is fully validated, passing all relevant ANSI/ISO conformance tests, and supports eCOG1-specific extensions, including a fractional type that represents 16- and 32-bit scaled arithmetic, directly accessed through inline functions.

Similarly, the simulator and emulator are mature, enabling developers to simulate cycle-accurate instruction execution. Using a common user interface and commands, the eCOG1 simulator uses an eCOG1 interpreter to execute instructions, while the eCOG1 eICE emulator debug interface connects to a target board via a standard printer cable. Developers can model real signals and behavior, accurately evaluating instruction timing and code performance.

Up to four networked eCOG1 microcontrollers can be monitored, debugged and programmed over the same eICE interface. The eCOG1 eICE emulator can also be customized via extension modules to support programming of external peripherals such as flash memory. Thanks to the on-chip MMU and cache, the eCOG1 emulator can also provide up to 512 breakpoints, enabling developers to halt the processor and examine the core status, significantly easing the debug process.

The eCOG1 evaluation board--available for just $249--is one of the most comprehensive evaluation boards in the industry, specifically designed to enable developers to fully test and debug their eCOG1 applications in a completely customizable environment. A dedicated prototyping area is supported with hardware features such as a 16-character x 2-line LCD, 8-MB SDRAM, 10/100BaseT Ethernet, SPI, two UARTs, four-color LEDs, potentiometers for the ADCs, buzzer, eICE connector and more. A daughterboard connector supports the addition of modular add-in cards for application specific evaluation. With 32.768-kHz and 5-MHz clock sources, developers can measure current consumption at different clock speeds, enabling accurate evaluation of application power requirements.

"With the now rapid growth of practical low-power communications applications such as next-generation embedded Internet devices, intelligent sensors and home networking, Cyan Technology's connectivity solution will be quickly adopted by the marketplace," noted Bill Giovino, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. "Traditional microcontrollers often force developers to solve connectivity problems in ways that compromise power, performance, or overall system cost. We are giving developers a solution that enables them to deliver superior functionality and meet time-to-market pressures without increasing system cost."

About Cyan Technology

Cyan Technology (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 flash microcontrollers offer significant advantages in ease of use, price, performance, and low 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 hand-held instrumentation and web-enabled phones, plus a wide range of embedded communications devices, such as set-top boxes, Internet-enabled appliances, and intelligent sensors.

Use of Cyan's chips will enable developers of electronic products to produce goods with highly sophisticated functionality at prices previously unachievable.

First-round funding was provided by ET Capital and the Cambridge Gateway Fund, and the second round by NIF Ventures and the Cambridge Gateway Fund.

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