Paving a faster and smoother path to market

How essential are development kits and design examples to the electronics design and production process? According to a recent worldwide survey of electrical engineers by element14 Pty, four out of five believe that development kits have become a crucial tool to take designs to the end product stage and most use all or part of their kits in their final production design. Moreover, three out of four believe that kits play a critical role in driving innovation.

Those concepts are fundamental to the Renesas Synergy Platform. Targeted at the rapidly emerging IoT and industrial markets where getting to market first will likely drive success, the kits and design examples Renesas has developed for the Renesas Synergy Platform are expressly designed to shrink the design cycle and shorten time to market. These pre-integrated hardware and software projects give developers at all stages of the design process an opportunity to quickly develop and test the capabilities of their design.

Above: Figure 1. This Renesas Synergy Development Kit for the S7 Series MCUs offers access to all pins and full debugging functionality

Just as important, they offer developers an opportunity to begin writing their own application code as soon as possible. Renesas offers three types of Renesas Synergy kits for general development around each of the Renesas Synergy MCU series devices, and two types of Renesas

Synergy design examples to guide developers as they explore how to implement designs for specific end products or how to use specific technologies with the Renesas Synergy platform. The three kit types are Development Kits (DK), Starter Kits (SK), and Promotional Kits (PK). The two types of design examples are Product Examples (PE) and Application Examples (AE).

Renesas Synergy Kits
DKs offer a complete software and hardware development platform with full access to virtually all the capabilities of the MCU. Developers may access all the MCU features and pins for evaluating device performance and power consumption, for building a core software application until their own specific hardware development platform is available, and even to expand capabilities by plugging in specialised circuit boards into DK expansion connectors and industry standard Pmod connectors. All DKs offer J-Link on-board (J-Link OB) debug access. At least one DK is available for each of the Renesas Synergy Series S1, S3, S5 and S7 MCUs and they serve as a basis for the hardware platforms on which the SSP software is qualified.

DKs for high pin-count devices such as the S7 and S3 use two boards while the DK for the smaller S1 device uses one board. For the two board approach there is a main board and a breakout board. The main board features the MCU and supporting memory as well as at least one of each type of serial communications channel, while the breakout board beneath provides easy access via connectors to all the pins. The breakout board will also house additional serial communication interfaces if the devices call for it.

For example, a device featuring two USB interfaces will house one on the main board and a second on the breakout board. For wireless connectivity all DKs offer a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio for connection to a mobile device, but WiFi or other connectivity options can be added via Pmod extensions.

Figure 2. Renesas Synergy Starter Kits open thousands of dollars’ worth of commercial software to developers for just the cost of the kit

A DK for the Renesas Synergy S7 Series MCU is displayed (above right). Featuring a detachable 4.3” WQVGA touch display, the kit offers developers a convenient way to evaluate the S7 Series using internal MCU SRAM or external SDRAM memory for the graphics frame buffer.

One step below the Renesas Synergy DKs, Renesas offers Renesas Synergy Starter Kits. These more basic kits provide an introduction to the Renesas Synergy Platform and outline steps to begin development. SKs are the lowest cost option, opening the door to full use and evaluation of the entire Renesas Synergy Platform. Each SK provides access to most MCU pins and also provides expansion via sets of connectors based on the Pmod standard and on the standard Arduino format for Arduino Shield plug-in boards. SKs serve as a basis for SSP software qualification and feature J-Link OB debug access for easy software development.

The Renesas Synergy PKs are offered during special promotions at no charge for entry level evaluation of the Renesas Synergy Platform, highlighting a few key MCU features and giving no barrier access to the use of Renesas Synergy Tools and Software.
As an example, the PL shown in Figure 3 is designed to demonstrate low power operation. Featuring a S1 Series MCU, the kit is powered through a USB port and is programmable through the debugger and BLE. Developers can debug through a K-Link OB.

Above: Figure 3. Renesas Synergy Promo Kits example

Synergy design examples
For developers who want guidance on a specific implementation of an end product or how to use multiple technologies, Renesas offers multiple design examples in the form of Product Examples (PE) and Application Examples (AE).

Product examples
PEs represent a ‘design instance’ of a particular end product. Customers can re-use portions of the PE directly in their own end products to save development time. Equally important, developers can learn from the PE’s documented design journey and the methodology Renesas engineers used to select or reject key components. With this knowledge Renesas Synergy customers can design their own product based on PEs even if their end products differ to some degree.

All PEs feature a Renesas Synergy MCU and the SSP pre-integrated with VSA software from third-party suppliers. To shorten the development cycle, these PEs bring together a complete and optimized hardware design with full documentation, a bill of materials (BOM) and Gerber files for PC board layout. As with the Renesas Synergy Kits, PEs standard Pmod connectors provide easy addition of various RF connectivity, analogue interfaces, sensors and other functions.

These pre-integrated, optimised PEs offer developers an opportunity to begin implementing application code earlier in the development cycle.

Figure 4. Renesas Synergy Product Example PE-HMI1 for Human Machine Interface designs

As an example, one of the PEs is a Human Machine Interface (HMI). Designed to be used in a variety of GUI panel applications, the PE-HMI1 features a seven inch WVGA colour TFT display with capacitive touch capability and a CMOS imager that takes advantage of the Renesas

Synergy S7 Series MCU’s graphics capability. To simplify development, all of the basic software components for graphics, touch, audio, Ethernet, USB, WiFi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy and other communication protocols have been included, as well as libraries for system management and other basic functions.

Other PEs build upon typical IoT applications. One functions as an environmental data monitor and logger using a S3 Series MCU that performs sensor fusion of multiple sensor inputs for humidity, pressure, temperature and others. This environmental monitor transmits sensor data wirelessly over a 6LoWPAN mesh network using a 2.4GHz IEEE 802.15.4. A segment LCD with capacitive touch buttons serves as the native user interface. Another PE using a S1 Series MCU offers a design instance of a battery operated proximity detector which features wired and 2.4GHz wireless connectivity. More PEs are under development.

Application examples
Finally, Renesas has developed a number of Application Examples, or AEs, for the Renesas Synergy Platform. Unlike a PE which serves as a ‘design instance’ that looks very similar to an end product, an AE can be a collection of hardware and software components designed to demonstrate particular technologies. AEs can be a collection of DKs, SKs, PEs, hardware from 3rd parties, and plug-in modules for Pmod and Adruino Shield connectors. AE software includes an integration of the SSP, plus any required QSA or VSA components with the demonstration application software. AEs are documented with an application note and available in various forms.

Figure 5. Renesas Synergy application example for IoT connectivity

Renesas’ initial group of AEs include one for capacitive touch technology based on S1 and S3 Series MCUs, one for industrial networking protocols using S7 Series MCUs with dual Ethernet and IEEE-1588 time synchronisation, and for IoT networking to demonstrate sensors networked to an HMI platform which is connected to the cloud via WiFi and connected to a mobile device via Bluetooth Low Energy.

Conclusion
Time to market will likely dictate the winners and losers in the emerging IoT and industrial markets. Product developers who do not get their product to market first will face a difficult challenge winning market share. By packaging fully integrated platforms of hardware and qualified software for enabling production ready designs, the Renesas Synergy Development Kits and Design Examples offer embedded developers a crucial head start.