EEbeat

by Jim Harrison

Renesas Electronics America has introduced three new MCU device families and an analog front-end at their DevCon meeting.

Renesas announced plans to use 40 nm MONOS embedded flash technology in the RX family of high-performance, general-purpose 32-bit MCUs and an expansion of the RX family to add new high-performance, high-speed MCU RX600/RX700 series and a new low-power RX100 MCU.

The RX600/RX700 series will have as much as 8 Mbytes of 120 MHz flash memory dual Ethernet ports, and 512 Kbytes of RAM. The new RX100 will feature a low 155 uA/DMIPS and only 350 nA in standby mode.

Also introduced, is the new RZ Family of embedded microcontrollers based on an ARM Cortex-A9 core. The RZ/A version will have a 400 MHz core and 10 Mbytes of flash and feature a high performance graphics controller with XGA resolution with support of the Open VG 1.1 standard. The RZ/N series will focus on connectivity and have an 800 MHz core and high speed communication interfaces.

The RZ/A is expected to be sampling in Q2, while the RX600/RX700 will also be sampling in Q2, and the RX100 will lead the parade with samples now and production in Q1.

Another Renesas first is an analog front-end IC for smart sensor interface. It has configurable amplifiers combined with A/D converters. This device is being demonstrated on the DevCon show floor, but I have no word yet on the sampling or production dates.