Infineon launches AI assistant for hardware-aware PSOC MCU coding
Infineon Technologies is expanding its ModusToolbox software ecosystem with the ModusToolbox AI Assistant, a Microsoft Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extension that provides AI coding agents with hardware-specific context for PSOC Edge and PSOC Control microcontrollers.
The extension is designed to address a common limitation of general-purpose AI coding tools: a lack of detailed knowledge about the target hardware. Without device-specific context, AI-generated embedded code can select the wrong device, use deprecated application programming interfaces (APIs) or omit hardware initialisation steps that only become apparent during board bring-up.
The ModusToolbox AI Assistant analyses the developer’s project locally and provides the AI agent with information about the target device, board and peripheral configuration. This enables AI-generated code to be better aligned with the selected Infineon hardware and development environment.
The assistant is aimed at embedded applications including connected IoT devices that combine processing, graphics and connectivity functions.
Hardware-aware context for embedded development
Embedded software development requires precise configuration of the underlying hardware. Incorrect pin assignments, clock settings or peripheral configurations can lead to time-consuming debugging once software is deployed to physical hardware.
The ModusToolbox AI Assistant addresses this by analysing the local development workspace, including the project structure, board support package, installed middleware, code examples and available development tools.
It then supplies the AI coding agent with device-specific instructions and development skills covering peripherals such as GPIO, I²C, SPI, UART and DMA, together with connectivity and real-time operating system (RTOS) functions.
By providing more targeted context, Infineon says the approach can improve the relevance of generated embedded code while reducing the amount of context, or token consumption, required by the AI agent.
“AI-assisted workflows are changing how developers build embedded systems,” said Sam Geha, executive vice-president of IoT – Compute & Wireless Business at Infineon. “With the ModusToolbox AI Assistant, developers can combine the productivity of generative AI with the device-specific knowledge needed to build for our microcontrollers and wireless products. Because project context is processed locally, customers retain control of their development data while accelerating the path from concept to deployment.”
Project planning and local processing
Before generating code, the assistant creates a project plan that developers can review and refine. The plan defines the target device, development board, libraries and project structure.
The same workflow can also support migration of existing projects to other Infineon devices.
ModusToolbox tools, including Device Configurator and Library Manager, can be launched directly from the AI chat interface. The extension is compatible with AI development tools including GitHub Copilot, Cursor and Windsurf.
Project analysis and context processing are performed locally, which can help organisations deploy AI-assisted development workflows in environments with restrictive IT security policies.
Availability
The ModusToolbox AI Assistant is available as an extension pack for Microsoft VS Code. It requires VS Code 1.85 or later and ModusToolbox 3.7 or later.
Current support includes PSOC Edge and PSOC Control microcontroller families. Infineon plans to add support for PSOC 4, PSOC 6 and TRAVEO T2G families in future releases.
The ModusToolbox AI Assistant is available through the Visual Studio Code Marketplace, with further information available from Infineon.
