The process of setting up Cyclone programmers to perform production programming at a local or remote facility is simple and straightforward. PEmicro's Cyclones support programming of STMicroelectronics' popular STM32 and Bluetooth Low-Energy (BlueNRG) devices, as well as the SPC5 automotive and STM8 8-bit families.

In addition, Cyclone programmers leverage PEmicro's ProCryption Security to use industry-standard RSA/AES cryptography to safeguard programming images containing valuable IP. The IP owner also gains added control over factors like when and how many devices can be programmed, and how many errors are allowed.

This article will provide an overview of Cyclone programming - what the various components are and how they interact - and then explore the security aspect of the production programming process, in order to show that IP security does not need to be unduly complicated or expensive to be effective. 

PEmicro's website and our shipped software are not affected by the recent Apache log4j vulnerability. Users with additional questions or concerns may contact us at: technical-info (at) pemicro.com

PEmicro has expanded its ARM® device support of Cypress’ current PSoC 4, PSoC 5, and PSoC 6 devices. 

PEmicro's popular Multilink debug probes and Cyclone ISP programmers now include support for the following Cypress device families: 4000, 4000S, 4100, 4100S, 4100PS, 4100S Plus, 4100M, 4100BLE, 4200, 4200M, 4200L, 4XX8_BLE, 5200, 5400, 5600, and 5800, as well as Cypress’ new PSoC 6xx6 and 6xx7 series microcontrollers. 

A volume production solution often relies on simultaneous gang programming of different target boards to meet speed and throughput requirements. This programming scenario may integrate Cyclone programmers into a fixture which interfaces to a panel of boards to be programmed. Programming is commonly controlled and monitored from a local computer, especially when customized dynamic data is being added to the main binary image that is being programmed into each target.

PEmicro’s gang programming solution is to control many Cyclone programmers simultaneously via the Cyclone Control Suite. A mix of programming images, targets, and data can be simultaneously programmed into many devices while maintaining a high level of performance because each Cyclone is itself an independently operating programmer.  

BOSTON – December. 23, 2013 - P&E Microcomputer Systems, Inc. a leading manufacturer of third-party tools for Freescale microprocessors, announced the release of a new UNIT Hardware Interface Library: UNITDSC, for Freescale's DSC processors. PEmicro's UNIT libraries consist of routines that interact with and control PEmicro's hardware interfaces. This allows users to create custom run-control and test applications. Standard UNIT licenses allow the applications to be used on up to 5 computers. PEmicro also offers Distributable versions of its UNIT software which can be used on an unlimited number of computers.

UNITDSC can be used to control Freescale's DSC devices with PEmicro's Multilink Universal and high-speed Multilink Universal FX development interfaces, as well as the Cyclone MAX production programmer.

BOSTON – December. 17, 2012 - P&E Microcomputer Systems, Inc. a leading manufacturer of third-party tools for Freescale microprocessor, announced the release of  two new UNIT Hardware Interface Libraries: UNITACMP for ARM® Cortex™ processors,  and UNITS12Z  for Freescale's S12Z processors. P&E's UNIT libraries consist of routines that interact with and control P&E's hardware interfaces. This allows users to create custom run-control and test applications. Standard UNIT licenses allow the applications to be used on up to 5 computers. P&E also offers Distributable versions of its UNIT software which can be used on an unlimited number of computers. 

ARM is a registered trademark and Cortex a trademark of ARM, Limited.

P&E Microcomputer Systems has expanded its line of UNIT Library Interface Routines by adding a new version that supports Freescale's RS08 microcontroller family. P&E's UNIT Libraries allow the user to create custom Windows applications that can fully control an RS08 processor using either P&E's Cyclone PRO (Rev. C) or USB-ML-12 (Rev. C)  interfaces. It also supports P&E's DEMO9RS08LA8, DEMO9RS08LE4, and DEMO9RS08KB12 development boards, available through Freescale.

The UNIT libraries are frequently used to build custom production line testers. The libraries allow applications to peek and poke memory, peripherals, and other resources of the processor by using P&E interfaces to access the debug port. With these abilities, the application can perform tests of the target hardware, calculate target calibration data, or simply control the target using debug mode. 

More information about P&E's UNIT Interface Library Routines for the RS08 can be found at P&E's website.