NXP Unveils “Agile I/O” with I2C

The Agile I/O GPIO expanders further reduce the bill of materials by eliminating external components and minimizing the PCB space required, and simplify firmware development by capturing real-time events and eliminating software latencies, thus improving reliability.

The 16 new devices include eight industry-standard I2C GPIO expanders, as well as eight devices with additional Agile I/O functions. Providing a wide voltage range including level-shifting capabilities and support for voltages as low as 1.65V, the new GPIO expanders offer significant cost savings as replacements for existing 2.3 to 5.5V GPIO devices. With the same pin-out and register sets as industry-standard PCA95xx devices, the new GPIOs can also easily be interchanged in the same sockets, even in mid-cycle refresh.

“From consumer devices to industrial equipment, embedded systems today are run by increasingly complex microprocessors and ASICs. Adding more input/output pins to interface with the user and other ICs, however, translates to bigger and more expensive packages. A more elegant, cost-effective solution is to make the most of the I2C-bus with its two pins, and adding any number of Agile I/O GPIO expanders to handle interface duties and reduce the number of external components required,” said Steve Blozis, international product marketing manager, interface products, NXP Semiconductors. “By working to 1.65V and supporting a wider voltage range, our latest generation of GPIO devices also addresses the industry shift toward lower voltage applications.”
Unique “Agile I/O” Features

Incorporating many highly useful functions commonly added in system applications, the new I2C Agile I/O expanders offer the following standard integrated hardware features:

-An interrupt pin that reports back to the control processor when an input has changed state
-A hardware reset pin to return the device to its default state without powering down the part
-Two power-supply pins to enable simple level-shifting between different voltage domains

In addition, the Agile I/O includes important software-programmable features, including:

-An input latch to retain the input state
-Internal pull-up and pull-down resistors
-An interrupt mask which reduces interrupt traffic to the microcontroller and improves interrupt service response
-Interrupt register reports to identify which input actually caused an interrupt
-An output drive strength control to minimize system noise when multiple outputs switch simultaneously

Flexibility, Choice and Availability

The extensive selection of device options and packages allows system designers to select the right device for their designs at the optimum price point. The new GPIO expanders will be offered in TSSOP, as well as 0.5-mm pitch QFN package options, with the first product types available immediately.

The PCA(L)6408AHK is also released in a smaller 0.4-mm pitch QFN and the PCA(L)6416AEV in 0.5-mm pitch BGA. The Agile I/O version of both of these devices will also be released in a 0.4-mm pitch BGA package for the growing thin portable market.

Invented by NXP over 30 years ago, the I2C-bus has revolutionized chip-to-chip communications by replacing complex parallel interfaces with a straightforward yet powerful serial structure using a simple two-wire format. I2C peripherals are used in general-purpose applications from computing PC systems, servers, telecom, automotive and consumer products including portable devices and smartphones, helping designers to shrink the IC footprint resulting in lower system costs in every corner of the electronics industry.