Catalyst Semiconductor Adds 16-Bit Device to I2C/SMBus General Purpose I/O Expander Family
Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc. announced the next addition to its recently introduced I/O bus expander product line (July 2006). Similar to the recently announced CAT9554, which is an 8-bit I/O expander, the new CAT9555 provides a simple and cost-effective method to enable 16-bit I2C or SMBus general purpose I/O expansion for microcontrollers. These new Catalyst I/O expanders help designers balance system performance, processor, and board costs for sensor, control, and LED applications in white goods, digital cameras, cell phones, PDAs, satellite radios, routers, hubs and servers.
The CAT9555 consists of two 8-bit ports, which power up as inputs and can be configured as an input or output by writing to a register. The fixed part of the I2C slave address is the same as the 8-bit CAT9554 device, allowing any combination of up to eight of these devices to be connected on the same bus. This gives designers the flexibility to control the exact number of functions their system requires.
An internal power-on reset circuit initializes the device and sets the registers to their default values. Each I/O port is 5V input tolerant, with a high current I/O drive sink of up to 25mA and an I/O source of up to 10mA, maximum. Additionally, each I/O port is compatible with logic thresholds of 2.5, 3.3 and 5V. Among the CAT9555 product features are: its a second source to Philips PCA9555; 2.3 to 5.5V operation; 16 I/O pins that default to inputs at power-up; an industrial operating temperature of -40 to +85°C; 24-lead SOIC, TSSOP and 24-pad 4x4mm TQFN packages; and100% RoHS-compliant green packages.
The CAT9555 is available in three RoHS-compliant package options: 24-lead SOIC, 24-pin TSSOP, and 24-pad 4x4mm TQFN. Pricing for 10,000 piece quantities is $0.75 each. Samples are now available. Projected lead-times for production quantities are currently 6 to 8 weeks ARO.
