Renesas announces FreeRTOS support for new SH7216 MCU

4th March 2010

Renesas

ES Admin

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Renesas Technology Europe announced today that it has partnered with the FreeRTOS program to provide FreeRTOS support for the new SH7216 microcontroller device. FreeRTOS is a portable, open source real time kernel that is currently the de facto standard in cross-platform operating systems for embedded microcontrollers. The announcement is significant as it represents the first official port of FreeRTOS for the SuperH line of microcontrollers from Renesas. The port will especially benefit customers wanting to use the SuperH in connectivity or real time applications. The combined hardware and software provides high performance along with ease of use, helping customers to get their applications up and running much more rapidly.

The SH7216 is one of Renesas’ newest and already one of the most successful microprocessors in the portfolio. It integrates the industry leading SH2-A core, capable of 200 MHz operation and 480 DMIPS, with an IEEE-compliant floating point unit. The SH-2A also enables extremely fast interrupt response (in as little as 30 ns) ensuring that the SH7216 can also be used for applications with a true “real-time” requirement.

Along with the high-performance core, the SH7216 includes up to 1MB MONOS flash, the industry’s fastest embedded flash available exclusively from Renesas.

The main peripherals of the SH7216 include multiple communication interfaces such as Ethernet, CAN and USB. For motor control it has two dedicated timer units, each capable of automatic deadtime insertion, deadtime optimisation and automatic synchronisation with the analogue to digital converter.

FreeRTOSTM is an open source embedded real time operating system. With more than 77,500 downloads in 2008 and over 7000 downloads per month it is amongst the world’s most popular and widely used embedded operating systems.

The operating system’s modified GPL license allows users to deploy applications without publishing their proprietary application code. Support for the FreeRTOS kernel across 24 architectures is provided by an active FreeRTOS user community.

FreeRTOS is compatible with the commercially supported OpenRTOS and can be upgraded to SafeRTOS, a SIL3 RTOS version that has been certified by TÜV SÜD for use in safety critical applications. This enables users to design and test applications for free and upgrade to a commercial licence at a later date.

Development support for the SH7216

The SH7216 is supported by the SH7216RSK (Renesas Starter Kit). This tool is the ideal starting point for development but is also sufficiently powerful to enable full debugging and development. It comes with Renesas’ JTAG style “E10A for starter kits” debugger, a power supply. It includes the Renesas C compiler and High-performance Embedded Workbench. Most importantly, the board also supports the USB, Ethernet and CAN IP available on the SH7216. The SH7216RSK board can be ordered from numerous distributors across Europe and retails at € 410 RRP.