Passion for microcontrollers

Renesas delivers trusted ­embedded-design innovation. They include complete semiconductor solutions that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices to enhance the way people work and live. One of the leading companies in micro­controllers, analogue, power, and ­SoC products.

The quintessence of our passion for technology is evident in every aspect of the Renesas RA family. Just like the long heritage of Rensas MCUs. With the newest generation of RA Family MCUs, Renesas is setting the scene for innovative product ideas across all industries. For example State-of-the-art Arm® Cortex®-M33 and M23 cores based on the latest generation of Armv8-M architecture. But also excellent embedded Flash, cutting-edge security, powerful performance, and best-in-class peripheral IPs. All combined with the highest levels of integration and designed for optimum ease-of-use assure a fast time-to-market.

Integrated security into microcontrollers

The RA Family integrates secure-element functionality with the integrated Secure Crypto Engine in concert with Arm® TrustZone® technology. Renesas’ focus on integrating security functionality directly into the microcontrollers. It provides better performance, lower power consumption, stronger robustness, higher flexibility and cost-effective security solutions for IoT devices. Whereas a secure element works well for identity provisioning, it require the entire provisioning infrastructure to install keys and certificates. Renesas MCUs support flexible use cases. From enabling secure-storage of plaintext-keys, to secure-key installation that can be performed by either the device programmer or the application. To the creation of an MCU-unique cryptographic-identity on the MCU itself with the private-key never exposed anywhere outside the MCU. These capabilities enable one-stop secure provisioning and programming of the application firmware. With Renesas’ secure key storage, both optimum throughput and ultimate confidentiality are achieved.

As security attacks are constantly evolving, Renesas offers an easy and flexible upgrade of security functionality. And also unlimited space for key storage. The integrated security offerings of Renesas-MCUs are the perfect foundation on which to build secure IoT-devices in today’s connected world. Especially because of their NIST-certified cryptographic algorithms and MCU-unique key storage capabilities.

Rich connectivity

The RA Family offers endless communication options with a high level of integration enabling rich connectivity. They include Ethernet, USB, high-speed serial interfaces and much more. Additionally, the huge on-chip memory of up to 2 MB of flash and 640 kB of RAM can easily be increased. This happens with external flash and/or RAM through the Quad and OctaSPI interfaces. However, the advanced-analogue features, flexible timers and many more state-of-the-art peripherals make the RA Family a truly complete general-purpose MCU.

High performance, low power

Meanwhile, the RA Family boosts performance and reduces power at the same time. That takes place with up to 200 MHz operating frequency and power consumption down to 80 uA/MHz. While running the CoreMark algorithm from Flash. With the latest 40 nm process technology, Renesas was able to improve both active and standby power consumption. The RA Family is truly a high-performance and low-power MCU.

Reduced costs

Moreover, the RA Family reduces system costs with its unique level of integration. The integrated secure-element functionality is just one of many examples of how external components can be made redundant. Internal data flash can eliminate the need for an external EEPROM for non-volatile, updateable storage. The high-precision on-chip oscillator enables crystal-less operation of both USB FS Host and Device modes. The MCU operates with a broad-input-voltage-range single-rail power supply.

Leveraging these features presents many options to reduce external components and free GPIOs. Resulting in the ability to select smaller packages and to reduce PCB size as well as BOM costs.

Scalable solution

Above all, the RA Family is the base for your scalable product offering. Consisting of an extensive pin-compatible MCU line-up, from the RA2 Series with Cortex-M23, at lowest 66 uA/MHz power consumption. Additionally the broad input voltage range from 1.6 V to 5.5 V and enhanced capacitive touch. To the RA4 Series with 100 MHz and RA6 Series with 200 MHz Cortex-M33. This makes the RA Family the platform of choice for a wide variety of end products.

Shortening time-to-market

The RA Family Flexible Software Package (FSP) shortens time-to-market with production-ready, high-performance, and highly efficient drivers with portable APIs. The Renesas tools offer intuitive configurators for drivers, stacks, pin selection, and clock tree configuration. FSP is an open ecosystem, open to integrate existing applications and middleware. A truly open software package available through Github.

In conclusion, here at Renesas, it is all about realising big ideas. Since every development starts with an idea, engineers need a quick and versatile way to build their secure connected devices. Therefore, they also have to implement their complex idea with an easy-to-use platform. Using the Renesas RA Family of Arm microcontrollers together with the RA FSP makes embedded development easier than ever. With our longevity promise of up to 15 years and upgradable security functionality, every end product will stay viable for years to come.

 

Discover the world of renesas and its RA Family: www.renesas.com.

 

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