Cypress's EZ-USB CX3 Camera Controller Delivers 5-Gbps USB

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 28, 2014) - Cypress Semiconductor Corp. ( NASDAQ : CY ) today announced that Raytrix GmbH has selected Cypress's EZ-USB® CX3™ USB 3.0 camera controller for its new 3-D camera. The EZ-USB CX3 controller, which is now in full production, delivers 5-Gbps performance to the innovative R42 3-D Light Field Camera. The R42 supports up to 40-Megapixel resolution and 4,000 images, leveraging the CX3 solution's throughput to provide 3-D images with extended depth-of-field. The versatile camera is small enough for convenient use in a variety of applications, including machine vision, motion tracking and surface inspection.

EZ-USB CX3 is the industry's most flexible USB 3.0 camera controller. It allows developers to add USB 3.0 connectivity to any image sensors supporting the Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Camera Serial Interface Type 2 (CSI-2) standard. CX3 is ideally suited for high-definition (HD), high-speed image-capturing applications and is capable of streaming uncompressed video at 1080p at 30 frames per second or 720p at 60 fps. The CX3 solution is supported by the new Denebola reference design kit from Cypress's partner, e-con Systems. The kit accelerates time to market for HD cameras with a ready-for-production reference board that leverages CX3's SuperSpeed USB performance to seamlessly process large image files and stream HD video without compression, which degrades image quality.

"The EZ-USB CX3 USB 3.0 controller delivered exactly what we needed for the R42 camera," said Dr. Lennart Wietzke, founder of Ratrix GmbH. "CX3's SuperSpeed USB 3.0 performance enables the R42 to provide images with unparalleled 3-D depth. And the unique EZ-USB flexibility, along with the strong technical support from Cypress, shortened our design cycle."

"Cypress has been a technology leader in USB since 1996, with unparalleled Low-Speed and High-Speed USB solutions. With the addition of the CX3 camera controller to our unique FX3, FX3S and HX3 solutions, we now have the industry's strongest portfolio of SuperSpeed USB as well," said Mark Fu, Senior Director of the USB 3.0 Business Unit at Cypress. "We're excited at the customer response to CX3, as shown by its design win in Raytrix's groundbreaking R42 3-D camera."

Fu added, "The robust reference design kit from e-con Systems extends our design support for CX3. The kit streamlines the design process, making it easier than ever to bring top quality HD cameras to market quickly."

"We worked closely with Cypress to develop our new Denebola reference design kit around the CX3 camera controller," said Ashok Babu, President of e-con Systems. "The USB 3.0 camera market is gaining momentum with machine vision, industrial, scientific, medical and consumer products, and CX3 is a strong fit for these applications. With Cypress's detailed collateral, designers can use our kit to efficiently create USB Video Class cameras that 'plug and play' with major operating systems."

About the Denebola Reference Design Kit Developed by Cypress partner e-con Systems, the Denebola (See3CAM_CX3RDK) USB 3.0 reference board employs the CX3 controller to interface to an OmniVision OV5640 CMOS image sensor through a 2-lane MIPI CSI-2 interface. It enumerates as a USB Video Class (UVC) compliant camera and works with the UVC device drivers of major operating systems. The RDK includes built-in SPI Flash and I2C EEPROM for CX3 firmware storage, as well as a JTAG and RS232 interface for firmware debugging. Designers can use the kit's GPIO headers to connect additional interface boards to add camera control functions such as pan, tilt, zoom, lighting and sync in/out. In addition, designers can also easily replace the OV5640 CMOS image sensor with any other image sensor by quickly developing just a image sensor daughter board that can be plugged on to the Denebola kit and modifying the firmware. E-con also provides additional camera daughter boards as accessories for this Denebola kit. For more information about the Denebola kit or to purchase it, visit www.e-consystems.com/CX3-Reference-Design-Kit.asp .

About EZ-USB CX3 The EZ-USB CX3 programmable USB 3.0 camera controller supports MIPI CSI-2 version 1.01, up to 4 data lanes at speed up to 1 Gbps per lane, for a total bandwidth of 4 Gbps. CX3 supports many image formats including RAW8/10/12/14, YUV422 (CCIR/ITU 8/10-bit), and RGB888/666/565. Based on the proven EZ-USB FX3 ™ peripheral controller platform, CX3 comes with an ARM9 CPU and 512 KB SRAM, providing 200 MIPS of computational power for on-chip image data processing. CX3 supports multiple peripheral interfaces such as I2C, SPI, and UART, which can be programmed to support Pan, Tilt and Zoom or other camera control functions. 

Product Availability The CX3 controller is in full production and is certified by the USB-IF. For more information on EZ-USB SuperSpeed solutions, please contact Cypress at usb3@cypress.com .

About Raytrix GmbH German company Raytrix GmbH was founded by Christian Perwass and Lennart Wietzke motivated by the vision to develop and introduce innovative visual media technologies to the industry-, scientific-, and entertainment-market. We are the developer and manufacturer of innovative 4D lightfield cameras and image processing software with incredibly high resolution. Furthermore we develop new computational photography and software products with a straightforward contact to our clients. Learn more at www.raytrix.de .

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About Cypress Cypress delivers high-performance, mixed-signal, programmable solutions that provide customers with rapid time-to-market and exceptional system value. Cypress offerings include the flagship PSoC ^® 1, PSoC 3, PSoC 4, and PSoC 5LP programmable system-on-chip families. Cypress is the world leader in capacitive user interface solutions including CapSense ^® touch sensing, TrueTouch ^® touchscreens, and trackpad solutions for notebook PCs and peripherals. Cypress is a world leader in USB controllers, which enhance connectivity and performance in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. Cypress is also the world leader in SRAM and nonvolatile RAM memories. Cypress serves numerous major markets, including consumer, mobile handsets, computation, data communications, automotive, industrial, and military. Cypress trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol CY. Visit Cypress online at www.cypress.com .

Cypress, the Cypress logo, EZ-USB, TrueTouch, PSoC and CapSense are registered trademarks and CX3 and FX3 are trademarks of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.