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Silicon Labs Rounds Out Smart Interface Portfolio with USB-to-SPI Bridge Chip
Single-Chip CP2130 Bridge Controller Reduces Cost, Complexity and Development Time for USB Connectivity Applications
We designed the new CP2130 USB-to-SPI bridge controller with simplicity in mind, creating a highly integrated interface solution that provides developers with everything they need to add USB while reducing cost, complexity and time to market.

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Silicon Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB), a leader in high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, today introduced a high-performance bridge controller that offers a turnkey solution for bridging a universal serial bus (USB) host and a serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus with driver support for Windows®, OS X and Linux operating systems. Silicon Labs’ new CP2130 USB-to-SPI bridge controller provides industry-leading data throughput, exceptional configurability and a high level of mixed-signal integration in a space-saving 4 mm x 4 mm package. The CP2130 bridge controller is ideal for new designs or upgrading legacy designs to include USB for a wide range of embedded applications including USB dongles, tablets, handheld controllers and testers, blood glucose monitors, docking stations, point-of-sale products, data logging modules and card readers.

With the proliferation of USB in the embedded world, developers are looking for cost-effective solutions to help speed time to market, and Silicon Labs developed the CP21xx bridge family with this goal in mind. The CP2130 bridge controller enables developers to add USB functionality to their applications without requiring USB software, firmware or hardware domain expertise typically required with more complex alternatives. The CP2130 bridge controller rounds out Silicon Labs’ popular CP21xx smart interface portfolio, adding SPI to the roster of USB-to-UART, I2C/SMBus and I2S interface solutions.

The highly integrated CP2130 controller features on-chip functions and peripherals that eliminate the need for external components, which reduces bill of materials (BOM) cost and board space. The CP2130 device includes a USB 2.0 full-speed controller and transceiver, a serial peripheral interface controller that enables communication with a wide range of SPI slave devices down to 1.8 V, 348-byte programmable memory, crystal-less USB operation and an integrated 5 V voltage regulator rated at 100 mA.

Designed to give developers the utmost design flexibility, the CP2130 device’s highly configurable SPI controller can communicate with up to 11 SPI slave devices using any of its 11 GPIO pins as chip-selects or be configured for alternate functions that can be used to eliminate external circuitry and components. The CP2130 device is the fastest full-speed USB bridge controller on the market, providing up to 6.6 Mbps read throughput and 5.8 Mbps write throughput.

“More and more developers rely on Silicon Labs’ cost-effective, easy-to-use USB smart interface solutions to eliminate the complexities associated with adding USB to embedded systems,” said Geir Førre, senior vice president and general manager of Silicon Labs’ Microcontroller products. “We designed the new CP2130 USB-to-SPI bridge controller with simplicity in mind, creating a highly integrated interface solution that provides developers with everything they need to add USB while reducing cost, complexity and time to market.”

Pricing and Availability

Samples and production quantities of the CP2130 USB-to-SPI bridge chip are available now in a space-saving 4 mm x 4mm 24-pin QFN package. The CP2130 controller is priced at $1.23 (USD) in 10,000-unit quantities. The CP2130EK USB-to-SPI evaluation kit, priced at $20 (USD MSRP), allows complete evaluation and customization of the CP2130 controller.

For more information about the CP2130 USB-to-SPI controller and to order samples and evaluation kits, visit www.silabs.com/USB-Bridge.

Silicon Labs

Silicon Labs is an industry leader in the innovation of high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs. Developed by a world-class engineering team with unsurpassed expertise in mixed-signal design, Silicon Labs’ diverse portfolio of patented semiconductor solutions offers customers significant advantages in performance, size and power consumption. For more information about Silicon Labs, please visit www.silabs.com.

Cautionary Language

This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on Silicon Labs’ current expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. For a discussion of factors that could impact Silicon Labs’ financial results and cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Silicon Labs’ filings with the SEC. Silicon Labs disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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Contact:

Silicon Labs
Dale Weisman, +1-512-532-5871
dale.weisman@silabs.com