Renesas Technology launches dual core microcontroller for consumer and industrial applications

The SH7205 incorporates two SH-2A cores, each of which has an operating frequency of 200MHz and yields 480DMIPS. This means that a peak performance of 960DMIPS is achievable from a single device. The device also features two single/double-precision floating point units (FPU). Increasingly, engineers who develop their algorithms on PCs using high-level abstraction tools require a microcontroller with a FPU. Without an FPU, algorithms slow down significantly when the application is moved from the PC to an embedded platform.



The SH7205 includes all the necessary connectivity for most applications. It has two CAN channels for use in standard industrial communications, a USB module supporting up to high speed function or host, as well as six channels of serial communication interfaces (SCI), two channels of synchronous serial communication unit (SSU) and four channels of IIC.



To support visualisation applications the device is fitted with RGB input and output, as well as a 2D graphics engine. It includes acceleration functions such as bit blitting, variable blending and font expansion to name just a few as well as several resizing functions.

The device also offers a comprehensive MTU2 timer unit with five channels of 16-bit timers, support for up to 18 input capture/output compare functions, and a three-phase PWM capability for electrical motors. Additional motor control features are enabled by a quadrature encoder feedback capability. The MTU2 incorporates additional safety features with its Port Output Enable (POE) pins that provide a faster and more deterministic response time to ensure safe quick shutdown of the motor. The IC includes an eight channel ADC with 10-bit resolution. The ADC can be triggered by the MTU2 with an additional defined delay time to support algorithms such as single-shunt motor drive.



Specifically, the CPU cores benefit from three key features. Firstly, the internal bus system uses a CPU-specific multi-layer structure. This 4-layer configuration provides two layers for CPU use and two for DMAC (direct memory access controller) use. This approach prevents time from being wasted while the bus is in use by the other CPU, for high-speed real-time processing. Secondly, the cores can operate on different operating systems (OS) or the same one. If one CPU core runs a RTOS, while the other runs the μClinux OS, for example, they can execute completely different programs. This capability lets engineers construct a system flexibly, according to its use or purpose. Finally, the two CPU cores can communicate directly with each other. Each CPU can check the status of the other one, and they can exchange data using memory provided for that purpose. Thus, processing linkage can be implemented between the CPUs through mutual exchanges of their respective processing states and data.



The device features a 32bit wide external bus interface for fast access to external memories. It also features 96kB of internal user RAM as well as 2x16kB cache blocks: one for each core. The IC includes a real time clock and supports up to 14 channels of DMA. The SH7205 is available in a compact 272-pin BGA (17mm × 17mm) that helps minimise product size.



The device is available now. The latest version of the High-performance Embedded Workshop (HEW), Renesas’ own integrated development environment now supports multi-core programming. A special version of Renesas’ E10A-USB debugger has been created called the E10A-for-multi to support multi-core debugging. The M3A evaluation boards are also available now.