Renesas RA0 Cortex-M23 MCU series target power and cost-sensitive applications

Fast Prototyping Board for RA0E1

Renesas has announced the new low-power RA0 microcontroller series based on the power-efficient Arm Cortex-M23 core and the entry-level RA0E1 Group in the series. According to Renesas, the RA0 microcontrollers offer the “industry’s lowest overall power consumption for general-purpose 32-bit MCUs.” With a current consumption of 84.3 μA/MHz in active mode and only 0.82 mA in sleep mode, these microcontrollers are built to provide ultra-low power consumption. They also offer a Software Standby mode where the CPU, peripheral functions, and internal oscillators cease to operate. This mode reduces power consumption further by 99% down to 0.20 µA. They also come with a high-precision, High-speed On-Chip Oscillator (HOCO) for fast wake-up. The Cortex-M23 core is based on the Armv8-M instruction set and offers a maximum clock frequency of 32 MHz, with up to 64KB of code flash memory and 12KB SRAM  for storing application code and data. This feature set makes […]

R9A02G021 is the first microcontroller with Renesas 32-bit RISC-V CPU core design

Renesas R9A02G021 RISC-V MCU

Renesas R9A02G021 is the first MCU group to use the company’s in-house designed 32-bit RISC-V CPU core with 3.27 CoreMark/MHz, RV32I base plus M/A/C/B extensions, and features such as a stack monitor register, a dynamic branch prediction unit, and a JTAG debug interface. Renesas has been making RISC-V chips at least since 2022 with the likes of RZ/Five 64-bit microprocessor and R9A06G150 32-bit voice control ASSP. All those were based on Andes RISC-V cores, but since the company has now designed its own 32-bit core, future Renesas 32-bit RISC-V microcontrollers are all likely to feature the in-house core, starting with the R9A02G021 general-purpose MCU group. Renesas R9A02G021 key features and specifications: RISC-V Core Renesas RISC-V instruction-set architecture (RV32I + MACB + Ziscr, Control and Status Register (CSR) instructions + RISC-V Zifencei Instruction-Fetch Fence) Maximum operating frequency –  48 MHz Debug and Trace – RISC-V External Debug Support cJTAG Debug Port […]

Renesas AIK-RA4E1 and AIK-RA6M3 reference kits are designed for accelerated AI/ML development

Renesas AIK RA4E1 and AIK RA6M3 reference

Renesas AIK-RA4E1 and AIK-RA6M3 are two new development boards based on RA-series 32-bit microcontrollers. These new dev boards have multiple reconfigurable connectivity functions to accelerate AI and ML design and development time. Both boards appear similar, but the AIK-RA4E1 uses the R7FA4E110D2CFM MCU, features three Pmod ports, and has no Ethernet support. On the other hand, the AIK-RA6M3 utilizes the R7FA6M3AH3CFC MCU, has six Pmod ports, and includes Ethernet support. Both the boards support full-speed USB and CAN bus. Renesas AIK-RA4E1 and AIK-RA6M3 reference kits specifications (Consolidated): RA4E1 Microcontroller Features: Model: R7FA4E110D2CFM Package: 64-pin LQFP Core: 100 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 SRAM: 128 KB on-chip Code Flash Memory: 512 MB on-chip Data Flash Memory: 8 KB on-chip RA6M3 Microcontroller Features: Model: R7FA6M3AH3CFC Package: 176-pin LQFP Core: 120 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 with FPU SRAM: 640 KB on-chip Code Flash Memory: 2 MB on-chip Data Flash Memory: 64 KB on-chip Connectivity: One USB […]

Renesas RA2A2 Arm Cortex-M23 microcontroller offers high-resolution 24-bit ADC, up to 512KB dual-bank flash

Renesas EK-RA2A2 evaluation board

Renesas Electronics RA2A2 Arm Cortex-M23 microcontroller (MCU) group offers a 7-channel high-resolution 24-bit Sigma-Delta ADC, as well as dual-bank flash and bank swap function for an easier implementation of firmware over-the-air (FOTA) updates. The 48MHz MCU also comes with 48KB SRAM, up to 512KB code flash, various interfaces, and safety and security features that make it suitable for smart energy management, building automation, medical devices, consumer electronics, and other IoT applications that can benefit from high-resolution analog inputs and firmware updates. Renesas RA2A2 specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M23 Armv8-M core clocked at up to 48 MHz Arm Memory Protection Unit (Arm MPU) with 8 regions Memory 48 KB SRAM Memory Protection Units (MPU) Memory Mirror Function (MMF) Storage Up to 512 KB code flash memory in dual bank (256 KB × 2 banks); bank swap support 8 KB data flash memory (100,000 program/erase (P/E) cycles) Peripheral interfaces Segment LCD […]

Renesas RZ/V2H Cortex-A55/R8/M33 MPU comes with 80 TOPS AI accelerator for robotics and autonomous applications

Renesas RZ/V2H block chart

The RZ/V2H is the latest addition to the Reneasas family of 32-bit and 64-bit microprocessors. Renesas RZ/V2H microprocessor features four Arm Cortex-A55 application processing cores, dual Arm Cortex-R8 real-time processing cores, and one Cortex-M33 core for system management, as well as an AI accelerator with up to 80 TOPS (sparse) of performance. The RZ/V2H MPU includes the third generation of Renesas’ dynamically reconfigurable processor for AI (DRP-AI3) accelerator, a staple of the RZ/V series. The DRP-AI accelerator can run complex image AI models at a power efficiency of 10 TOPS per watt (TOPS/W), as much as 10 times higher than conventional microprocessors. Additionally, the RZ/V2H has another DRP that can be used in image processing and robotics applications. The board also comes with PCIe Gen3, USB 3.2, and Gigabit Ethernet for high-speed applications such as autonomous robotics and factory automation machine vision. It offers a performance boost over previous products […]

Renesas RA8T1 Cortex-M85 MCU targets motor control applications

Renesas RA8T1 block diagram

It took a while before Renesas released its first Arm Cortex-M85 microcontroller (RA8M1) in October 2023, but the company has now launched the RA8T1 Cortex-M85 MCU for motor control just a few weeks after announcing the RA8D1 for HMI applications. The RA8T1 group is the third Cortex-M85 microcontroller family from Renesas with a feature set optimized for motor control and leveraging machine learning through Arm Helium technology and a DSP for predictive maintenance requirements for motors. Renesas RA8T1 key features and specifications: MCU core – Arm Cortex-M85 clocked at 480 MHz with Helium MVE (M-Profile Vector Extension) with 32KB I/D caches, 12KB data flash Memory & Storage 1MB SRAM including 128KB TCM 1MB to 2MB Flash memory 2x SD/MMC host interfaces (SDHI) Communication interfaces Ethernet MAC with DMA USB – 1x USB 2.0 Full Speed interface 2x CAN-FD Up to 6x SCI (UART, Simple SPI, Simple I2C) 2x SPI up […]

Renesas releases the DA14592, a new dual-core Cortex-M33/M0+ BLE chip with integrated flash

DA14592 chip block diagram

The DA14592 System-on-Chip (Soc) is Renesas’ “lowest power consumption and smallest, multi-core Bluetooth LE device.” According to the company, this chip’s design was achieved by making careful tradeoffs between on-chip memory and die size. The chip offers an ultra-low power mode that uses only 2.3mA when transmitting radio signals at 0dBm and consumes 1.2mA to receive radio signals. It also supports a hibernation mode that uses about 90nA and can extend the operating life of battery-powered products. The active mode is best for processing-intensive products and uses 34µA for every MHz of CPU clock. Projected key applications for the DA14592 chip include crowd-sourced location (CSL) tracking as used in Apple’s Airtags, remote control units, human interface devices, asset tracking, IoT end nodes, data logging, connected health, and activity tracking. Renesas DA14592 specifications: CPU cores: Cortex-M33F running at up to 64MHz as application core Cortex-M0+ at 64MHz as configurable MAC Memory: […]

Renesas RZ/G3S is a 64-bit Arm Cortex-A55/M33 microprocessor with low power consumption and enhanced peripherals

rzg3s lineup en

Renesas RZ/G3S 64-bit Arm Cortex-A55 microprocessor (MPU) designed for IoT edge and gateway devices consumes as little as 10µW in standby mode thanks to its Cortex-M33 core(s) and features a PCIe interface for high-speed data transfers with 5G wireless modules. A single-core ARM Cortex-A55 CPU powers the RZ/G3s and can distribute workloads to two sub-CPUs, boosting efficiency in task handling and resulting in fewer components and a smaller system size. The Cortex-A55 core operates at 1.1GHz and is designed to improve power efficiency and performance over its predecessor, the Cortex-A53. The RZ/G3S isn’t Renasas’ first Cortex-A55 product as they have previously released the RZ/A3UL and the RZ/G2L, both powered by the same Cortex-A55 CPU. Additionally, Renesas launched the 64-bit RISC-V RZ/Five processor late last year. The RZ/G3S boasts high-speed interfaces such as PCIe and GbE, a better standby mode, and improved security features which make it suitable for IoT applications […]