The California-based Catalyst Semiconductor (News - Alert) announced the launch of CAT9534, a 8-bit general purpose input/output (GPIO) expander for I2C and SMBus-based systems. The expander offers simple, cost-effective solution for adding more functionality and simultaneously reducing power.

 

Catalyst Semiconductor is a company that designs and markets analog, mixed-signal and non-volatile memory products. The company products include Digitally Programmable Potentiometers (DPP), white and color LED drivers, DC/DC converters, LDO regulators, voltage supervisors, bus expanders, serial and parallel EEPROMs, Flash and NVRAM. Its products are used in LCD displays, automotive lighting, optical networks, printers, modems, wireless LANs, network cards, DIMM modules, cellular telephones, navigation systems, set-top boxes and Internet routers.

 

Catalyst's 8-bit I2C and SMBus I/O Port with Interrupt is pin-for-pin and functionally compatible with company's industry-standard CAT9554. It features low standby mode current supply of 1µA maximum and high current I/O drive sink of up to 25mA, making it ideal for battery-powered and "green" systems applications. It is also 400 kHz I2C bus compatible and each I/O port is compatible with logic thresholds of 2.5V, 3.3V and 5V.

 

The system master can invert the expander's input data by writing to the active-high polarity inversion register. It also features internal power-on reset that eliminates glitches on power-up. It has high drive capability with individual I/O configuration. It also incorporates an input port register, an output port register, a configuration register, a polarity inversion register and an I²C/SMBus-compatible serial interface. The device that features active low interrupt output indicates to the system master that an input state has changed.

  

Catalyst's CAT9534 provides a simple solution in applications where additional I/Os are needed such as white goods that include dishwashers, washing machines etc, in handheld devices that include cell phones, PDAs, digital cameras etc and data communications that include routers, hubs and servers.

 

Most of the company' products incorporate the Quantum Charge Programmable technology in order to deliver Adaptive Analog products that offer a new level of customer flexibility, lower power and smaller die size as well.

 

Jayashree Adkoli is a TMCnet Contributing Editor.