Renesas Electronics Introduces RX600 Series Microcontrollers that Reduce Standby Mode Power Consumption by Approximately 90 Percent

Introduced in March 2010, the preceding RX62N, RX621, and RX62T MCU Groups were designed with a full complement of on-chip analog and communications functions in various combinations to serve a wide variety of applications. These devices offered Ethernet, USB 2.0 host/ device/OTG (On-The-Go), CAN, a colour TFT-LCD interface, and complex analog signal acquisition capabilities to serve the requirements of building automation, security/fire/alarm systems, factory automation, white goods and motor control, power management, and patient monitoring applications. All of the RX62x Group MCU devices will achieve mass production status by end the 2010, and today designers can enjoy a full range of support items to quickly evaluate and upgrade their existing embedded MCU designs.

These noted applications constantly drive the need for expanded MCU capabilities and offerings. Renesas Electronics has anticipated these market requirements and is now introducing the RX63N/RX631/RX630 groups which provide a number of enhancements in the areas of memory and package selection, as well as new features. While the outstanding RX CPU performance and speed remain unchanged at 165 DMIPS (Dhrystone version 2.1) at 100MHz, the memory range of these new MCU groups now span from 256KB to 2MB of on-chip zero wait-state Flash memory, as well as 16KB to 128 KB of SRAM. Package offerings have also expanded now with a range from 64 to 177 pins in sizes starting at 7 x 7 mm with pin compatibility between like packages for easy migration of designs. Many functional enhancements were added to reduce system cost, reduce power consumption, and increase system capabilities, including a pin for connection to an alternate voltage source (coin cell or super cap) to automatically power the Real Time Clock (RTC) while drawing just 0.6uW typical power in Deep Standby mode (~90% less than the RX62x Group MCU with RTC), a tamper detection system within the RTC to time-stamp an intrusion event from three independent sources, an on-chip temperature sensor, an on-chip 50MHz oscillator to boot up a system at high speed, an on-chip voltage reference for the analog to digital converters, more serial communication channels, and better on-chip data flash characteristics with up to 100K erase cycles and finer write/erase granularity at just 2-byte write and 32-byte erase to eliminate the need for an external EEPROM device.

The RX63N/RX631 Groups support Ethernet, USB 2.0 host/device/OTG, and CAN connectivity, while the RX630 Group is the same except the USB 2.0 interface is device only. Compared to the RX62x Groups, there are additional CAN (up to three), I2C, and serial channels.