WirelessUSB™ LS Keyboard/Mouse Reference Design Kit now available

July 14, 2004

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: CY), the market leader in USB, introduced the WirelessUSB™ LS Keyboard/Mouse Reference Design Kit (CY4632), a comprehensive offering that enables manufacturers of PC Human Interface Devices (HIDs) including mice, keyboards and gamepads, to quickly go to market with a 2.4 GHz WirelessUSB-based design.

Cypress collaborated with Agilent Technologies Inc., the industry leader in optical mouse sensors, to develop the reference design kit. The kit combines Cypress’s WirelessUSB LS radio system-on-a-chip and enCoRe™ (Enhanced Component Reduction) USB low speed controller with Agilent’s ADNS-2030 3.3V low power optical mouse sensor to implement a USB-certified, production-quality, 2.4 GHz wireless keyboard, mouse and dongle system.

"The WirelessUSB LS Keyboard/Mouse Reference Design Kit provides a very low component count, low cost implementation of a 2.4 GHz PC HID platform using WirelessUSB technology," said Norm Taffe, managing director of the wireless business unit in Cypress’s Personal Communications Division. "This offering is made better by the fact that Agilent has lent its optical mouse expertise to the design."

"Our teaming with Cypress is enabling an exciting new generation of optical mice, keyboards, presenter tools and PC remotes," said Ed Keane, navigation sensors business manager for Agilent’s Sensor Solutions Division. "The combination of our low power, wireless optical navigation technology with Cypress’ WirelessUSB system controller provides an easy-to-use platform for accelerated development of feature-rich cordless peripherals."

The CY4632 reference design kit contains a WirelessUSB optical mouse that incorporates state-of-the-art technologies from both companies, enabling low-latency of below four milliseconds and smooth cursor performance. Also included in the kit is a multimedia keyboard that does not drop keystrokes in a heavily crowded, 2.4GHz environment because it leverages WirelessUSB’s patent-pending interference immunity technology. The small form-factor dongle in the kit couples Cypress’ WirelessUSB chip with its low-speed USB enCoRe controller for true USB plug-and-play operation. No custom software drivers are required.

In addition to hardware, the CY4632 solution contains a software utility that displays a battery power/signal strength indicator and NUM, SCROLL and CAPS LOCK from the users’ system tray thereby eliminating the need for dedicated LEDs. It also contains extensive technical documentation including RF hardware layout files and radio protocol firmware to help PC HID manufacturers tailor the solution to their own requirements.