As you may already know, PSoC Creator 4.0 is available for download on the Cypress website. There are some significant new features in this release.

The big change is the addition of all the FM0+ Flexible Microcontrollers. You can now pick any of those devices when creating projects and use components to configure the peripherals, just like you are used to with PSoC. This makes development so much easier because the tool always brings in the required driver code (from the Peripheral Driver Library v2.1.0), generates correct configuration data, and uses Guided Pin Selection to ensure you map signals to legal pins.

Another nice feature is the ability to create and use your own project templates. If you ever find that you re-create the same base schematic (and resources and source code) for multiple projects you can save all that time by saving the project as a User Template. Then, when it’s time to create the next project you simply select that template and all your work gets automatically added to the new design. Best of all, it includes your design-wide resources setup and source code as well, so it can really save you time.

Our Bluetooth Low Energy module business is really taking off and we got feedback that it is not easy to find those part numbers when they are mixed in with all the devices. So we have added a Module selection feature to the New Project dialog. Now, to create a module project, just select that radio button and pick the module you’re using.

We all enjoy designing with the schematic editor but sometimes it would be useful to be able to compare files, just so we can keep track of what changed. That’s tricky with a binary file format so we added a project property (Project->Properties…) to ask the tool to save a text-based version of the schematic alongside the CYSCH file. The format is XML and you can use your favorite “diff” utility to see what is different between two designs, or two versions of the same design. In fact we save a pair of files – one for the semantics and one for the visual features of the design – so you can compare the functional and cosmetic differences independently of each other.

Eclipse and command-line lovers will be happy to hear that we added an option to Export to Makefile. This feature generates a makefile that builds the whole project from source. It is a great way to implement automated build and test environments. And some of you just love the command line…

Our Applications team (a.k.a. “the boffins”) recently figured out a way to use the CapSense block as an ADC. So we created a component for the devices that can support it. With the component you can create a multi-channel ADC, or set up CapSense widgets the way you usually do, or even both at the same time. Try doing that with a fixed-function MCU!

Regular Start Page readers will have noticed that we are discontinuing support for Windows XP and Windows Vista next year. PSoC Creator 4.0 (and all updates we make to it) will continue to support those platforms but the next major software release will not. Note that PSoC Programmer shall continue to support those OS.

Another “policy change” is that we are changing our terminology for Device Packs, Component Packs, and Service Packs. We found that this was very confusing because you could not always be certain that you had the latest software installed. From now on, we shall still make those releases but they will simply be called “Updates”. The bigger the update number, the newer the software. Simple right?

As usual, we’ve also made many quality improvements and minor enhancements. I strongly encourage you to install PSoC Creator 4.0. You don’t even have to uninstall other versions of PSoC Creator to use this exciting new tool. You can find more information, including the complete Release Notes, on the PSoC Creator product page.

We only touched upon the new big features in this post. Over the next few weeks we’ll publish more articles, in which we shall highlight specific features and go into more detail.