32-bit MCUs have “superior noise tolerance” claims Renesas
The RX660 group of microcontrollers (MCUs) have been added to Renesas’ RX 32-bit MCU family.
The RX660 MCUs support operating voltages of up to 5.0V and are claimed to offer superior noise tolerance for home appliances and industrial equipment exposed to high electromagnetic interference (EMI).
The RX660 is the first in Renesas’ RX general purpose MCUs to support 5.0V and the first in the RX Family to feature a built-in CAN FD controller that enables fast data communication. The high operating voltages of the RX660 MCUs eliminate the need for external noise suppression components that are required for many 3.0V MCUs today. According to Renesas, this allows customer to reduce development time and component cost.
To meet demands such as software with functional safety and security, products equipped with real time operating systems to simplify software maintenance and the need for products need to be designed to accommodate future functional enhancements using over-the-air (OTA) updates, Renesas has based the RX660 around its RXv3 core (6.00 CoreMark/MHz) with a maximum operating frequency of 120MHz.
The MCUs feature large capacity ROM of up to 1Mbyte and RAM of up to 128kbytes and a range of package options from 48 to 144-pin versions. The effective pin count for general purpose I/O pins is 10 per cent higher than on the earlier RX210, which is also 5.0V-compatible. The increased I/O means more sensors can be connected to an MCU for a given package, making it simpler to upgrade existing systems, said Renesas.
“Noise suppression is essential for home appliances and industrial products since ambient electromagnetic waves in the surrounding environment can cause system malfunctions or reduce performance,” said Sakae Ito, vice president of the IoT Platform business division at Renesas. “We introduced the new RX660 MCUs in response to strong demand from customers who need to design products with high power supply voltages. We are happy to assist our customers to make their product design process simpler.”
CAN is becoming popular in industrial equipment and robotics, but the increasing volume of data communication due to the use of many sensors is causing insufficient bandwidth and higher costs for requiring multiple buses. The RX660 is the first group in the RX family to integrate a CAN FD controller that supports fast, high-volume data transfer. CAN FD allows security signals in large volume to be transmitted in a single frame, making it possible to build stronger security into devices.
Two development boards are available for the RX660 group for both prototyping and detailed evaluation. Target Board for RX660 is an inexpensive prototyping board that enables users to easily transform their ideas into working hardware and software. Renesas Starter Kit for RX660 is intended for detailed evaluation and allows users to make use of the full functionality of the RX660 when developing applications.
The RX660 MCUs and development boards are available now.
