Automotive microcontroller family brings advanced graphics to compact vehicles

Cypress Semiconductor has announced the expansion of its Traveo microcontroller (MCU) family with a new series that provides automotive manufacturers with a cost-effective platform to deliver 2-D and 3-D graphics and advanced functionality for dashboards, head-up displays and HVAC systems in compact vehicles. The S6J32BA and S6J32DA is series build on Spansion’s announcement of the Traveo 2-D graphics MCU S6J324C series and the 3-D graphics MCU S6J326C series for midsize cars in October 2014. The Traveo family delivers state-of-the-art 2-D and 3-D graphics, which have been optimized to bring sophisticated and automotive specific graphics functions into the car without increased power and bill of materials requirements. As the first 3-D-capable ARM Cortex-R5 cluster MCU, Cypress’s graphics engine provides greater memory savings, increased safety features and rich image capabilities, without the need for external video RAM. These, in turn, help manufacturers take advantage of lower overall system costs to proliferate the advanced driver experience previously reserved for luxury automotive brands. The new Cypress Traveo S6J32BA and S6J32DA product family includes the ARM Cortex-R5 processor, 1MB of internal flash, 1 MB of internal video RAM, enhanced secure hardware extension (eSHE) and the industry-leading HyperBus interface. The interface enables seamless connections with HyperBus memories such as HyperFlash memory and HyperRAM memory. The S6J32BA and S6J32DA series are pin compatible with their predecessors S6J324C and S6J326C, providing customers the flexibility and ease to upgrade without requiring changes to the board layout. The graphics functionality is complemented by an advanced sound system with a 16-bit Audio-DAC and a multi-channel mixer. Takeshi Fuse, senior vice president of the Automotive Business Unit, Cypress, said: “This new series of the Traveo family is the first automotive product launched as part of Cypress and is another step forward in bringing the luxury car experience to the mass market. By offering a cost-effective yet high-performance and scalable platform, our customers can affordably deliver 2-D and 3-D graphics and other advanced functionality in compact vehicles. We will continue to deliver innovative automotive systems, and now can provide a one-stop resource for our customers that combines our Traevo product family, a broad line of memory products, PMICs, TrueTouch controllers and CapSense human machine interface (HMI) solutions.”