News Releases

Nuremberg, embedded world 2nd March 2010 – At Embedded World in Nuremberg, Renesas Technology Europe today announced the release of the new RX62T, the third family of products in its broad RX Platform series of MCUs. The RX Platform is built around the new RX CPU and comprises the next generation of MCUs which integrate the functions of Renesas Technology’s existing 16-bit and 32-bit MCU products. The new RX62T Group comprises 40 individual products. In addition to the high speed, high performance, and low power of the 32-bit RX600 Series, the new RX62T group features improved inverter control timers and analog functions required for today‘s inverter control applications.

Furthermore, these microcontrollers help to reduce system costs and power consumption in various applications, such as air conditioners, washing machines, solar inverter solutions, lighting control and PFCs. These typically require increasing levels of functionality and environmental friendliness.

The RX62T microcontrollers include a multifunction timer pulse unit 3 (MTU3), which can drive up to two 3-phase motors. They also integrate a newly-developed 16-bit general-purpose PWM timer (GPT) that can drive a single three-phase motor. As a result, the RX62T products can drive up to three 3-phase motors at the same time with a single chip. The timer uses the same clock at 100 MHz, which is the CPU’s maximum operating frequency. This enables it to achieve a wide range of width measurements for PWM output waveforms with a 10 ns resolution.

Improved analog functions for system cost reductions and improved ease of use in motor vector control applications have also been implemented in the new RX62T family. It features two 12-bit A/D converter units and one 10-bit A/D converter unit, and can capture analog input values from up to 20 channels at a minimum conversion time of 1 ms.

The two 12-bit A/D converters can easily be used for sensorless vector control methods, like three-shunt or single-shunt current detection. As each of the A/D units can be triggered by timer units and sample three phases in parallel, an independent motor control for two separate motors can be applied.

“To complete the effectiveness of the RX62T, each 12-bit A/D includes three programmable gain amplifiers and three window comparators. This eliminates external current operational amplifiers and comparators used for overcurrent and overvoltage protection as typically used for vector control applications”, said Bernd Westhoff, Product Manager at the Renesas Technology Europe CID Business Unit. “This is another step by Renesas towards a system solution approach. It contributes to both system miniaturization and reduced system costs with state of the art technology.”

As fractional calculations are required in vector control algorithms, the RX62T supports a single precision floating point unit (FPU). This simplifies decimal point calculation, boosting the overall processing performance.

The devices in the RX62T Group provide a scalable memory solution from 64k Flash to 256kB Flash with up to 16kB RAM embedded. They also include an additional independent 8 KB of data flash memory with a background operation (BGO) function that enables data to be written at the same time a program is executing. The embedded flash memory is based on the renowned Renesas MONOS (Metal Oxide Nitride Oxide Silicon) technology that can be accessed at 100MHz without wait state insertion. This enables a maximum performance level of 1.65 DMIPS/MHz at any CPU frequency up to 100MHz, without any limitation from flash technology. These products also offer a wide range of packaging variations spanning 64pin, 80pin, 100pin and 112pin LQFP. The RX62T products achieve very low power consumption of 0.5 mA/MHz in full active mode, even though they include a wide range of peripherals.

To help customers shorten the development cycles of new embedded systems, Renesas, third-party suppliers and their alliance partner network support the RX with a variety of hardware and software tools.

The RX600 series comes with a JTAG debugger interface. This enables customers to connect a Renesas E1 or E20 on-chip debugger or enable access to similar JTAG third party systems.
RX62T group samples shipment is starting soon. Further information is available from Renesas sales offices.

* Product names, company names, or brands mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

About Renesas Technology Corp.
Renesas Technology Corp. is the world's No.1 supplier of microcontrollers and one of the world's leading semiconductor system solutions providers for mobile, automotive and PC/AV (Audio Visual) markets. It is also a leading provider of Power MOSFETs, Smart Card microcontrollers, RF-ICs, High Power Amplifiers, Mixed Signal ICs, System-on-Chip (SoC), System-in-Package (SiP) and more. Established in 2003 as a joint venture between Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, NYSE:HIT) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TSE:6503), Renesas Technology achieved consolidated revenue of 702.7 billion JPY in FY2008 (end of March 2009). Renesas Technology is based in Tokyo, Japan and has a global network of manufacturing, design and sales operations in 16 countries with 25,000 employees worldwide. For further information, please visit http://www.renesas.com

Headquartered in Buckinghamshire, UK, Renesas Technology Europe has offices in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany (3 offices), Italy, Spain, Sweden, and representation via related companies in the Czech Republic, South Africa and Russia.

In Europe, Renesas focuses on automotive (control, networking, infotainment), wireless (GSM, CDMA and Bluetooth), smart card and microcontroller applications such as white goods, motor control, metering, energy management, building security and healthcare. It employs over 150 engineers to develop solutions for the European market and to assist customers with application development. Renesas is a leading supplier of smart card ICs in Europe. Europe is the world’s largest market for automotive electronics and microcontrollers, and is the region of most design influence for wireless electronic products. Feedback from customers in Europe has great influence on Renesas’ product development.

For further information, please visit http://www.renesas.com or for Europe visit http://www.renesas.eu