New Industry Products

Catalyst Semiconductor Launches Lower Power 8-Bit I²C/SMBus I/O Expander

May 31, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc. has expanded its line of bus products with the CAT9534, an 8-bit general purpose input/output (GPIO) expander for I²C and SMBus-based systems. The CAT9534 is pin-for-pin and functionally compatible with Catalyst’s industry-standard CAT9554, but operates at 100 times lower standby power, making it a suitable choice for battery-powered and "green" systems applications.

With a low standby mode current supply of 1µA maximum, the CAT9534 offers a simple and cost-effective solution to add I/Os for functions such as LED indicators, control buttons, fans and sensors, while reducing power consumption in a broad range of end products, including white goods, digital cameras, cell phones, PDAs, routers, hubs and servers.

The CAT9534 consists of eight ports, which power up as inputs and each port can be configured as an input or output by writing to a register. An internal power-on reset eliminates glitches on power-up. 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.

Pricing for the CAT9534 I/O bus expander is $0.83 each, in 10,000 piece quantities. Samples are available now. Projected lead-time for production quantities is currently 6 to 8 weeks ARO.