Renesas Electronics Unveils Next-Generation Microcontroller and Microprocessor Roadmap

Renesas is also expanding the RX Family to include the lowest power, lowest cost 32-bit MCU for the embedded market, integrating as little as 8KB of flash memory.

Renesas also announced plans to introduce a family of ARM-based high-performance embedded MPUs. The new RZ Family will be deployed for a wide range of application areas that require high-speed data processing in excess of 300 MHz. Together, these new products will enable efficient, secure and connected electronic systems that improve our overall quality of life.

“As the industry continues to create more intuitive, interactive electronic devices, the need for highly integrated, high-performance, energy- and space-efficient MCUs will continue to increase,” said Shigeo Mizugaki, senior vice president and member of the board, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “Our advanced 40 nm process is an example of how Renesas is enabling a Smart Society through investments in technology development. When manufactured in our 40 nm MONOS process, the RX family of MCUs will offer unmatched memory and feature integration, higher performance and lower power consumption while achieving a 50 percent smaller die size in comparison to devices manufactured at 90 nm technology. At the same time, the new RZ Family of MPUs with up to 10MB of internal RAM for applications demanding high-speed data processing and the human machine interface.

New High-Performance 40nm RX600/700 and Low-Power RX100 Offerings

Renesas will expand the current RX Family to include devices from 8KB to 8 MB of embedded flash memory with compatible instruction set, peripherals and hardware and software tools set. The Renesas RX Family can support a wide range of applications, from small MCU application equipment in which cost is the most important factor to applications that require high data processing performance.

At the high-end, Renesas will develop a higher speed version of RX600 Series (120 MHz) and a new high-performance RX700 Series (240 MHz, with target performance of 3.6 Coremark/MHz). These products will adopt a 40 nm MONOS process and, will include up to 8 MB of on-chip flash memory with single cycle access at 120MHz and enhanced connectivity and graphics features. The new RX devices with enhanced FPU and DSP functions will run complex routines in half of the cycles needed with other competing 32-bit architectures in the market today.

The RX100 Series MCUs, which is based on the proven 130nm, low-power process technology, can run at 32MHz, delivering1.56DMIPS/MHz throughput, consuming only 155uA/DMIPS power in full active mode and only 350nA in the standby mode as target.

The Renesas MONOS embedded flash technology, which can operate in temperatures up to 125 degrees Celsius is well suited for the long-term data retention needed in high-reliability automotive and medical applications. In addition to the program memory, devices will also include data memory that will deliver 20-year data retention even after 100,000 write cycles. The mature 40nm Flash process is currently used in the production of Renesas’ RH850 Familu automotive MCUs.

New, ARM-based RZ MPU Family

The new RZ Family of embedded MPUs is designed to meet the need for high-performance processing of 300 MHz and higher, and can be used with general-purpose operating systems such as Linux. The new offering will combine the ARM core, which has a global software ecosystem with Renesas high-performance and low-power technologies, as well as Renesas’ extensive and proven library of peripherals. The new offering will include two series which are optimized for the two primary technology application areas:

-Graphic & human/machine interfaces – The RZ/A Series focuses on human/machine interfaces with up to XGA graphics processing. The first product in this series will integrate a 400 MHz ARM Cortex-A9 core and a 10MB of on-chip RAM to provide advantages such as high performance, low power, system cost reductions, and will eliminate the need for external DRAM. It will also include graphics functions that support the Open VG 1.1 standard to allow rich human/machine interfaces to be implemented easily.

-Connectivity – The RZ/N Series focuses on connectivity, to the cloud and other equipment. The first product in this series will integrate the 800 MHz ARM Cortex-A9 core, Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0 to provide a range of interface functions to connect with IT equipment.

Availability

The 40 nm versions of the RX600 MCUs is in development, and the first sample with dual Ethernet, 4MB of MONOS Flash and 512KB SRAM is scheduled to be available in 2Q of 2013.

Samples of the new RX100 product series, ultra-low power 32-bit RX devices offering flash memory integration from 8KB to 128KB are available in limited quantities and mass production is scheduled for Q1 of 2013.

Renesas plans to provide the sample of the first RZ product, a high-performance, 40nm device RZ/A Series is scheduled to be available in 2Q of 2013.