Dusseldorf, 25th February 2011 – Renesas Electronics, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the availability of its eight new 32-bit V850 microcontrollers (MCUs), an addition to its existing J Series. These new V850ES/Jx3-L MCUs are an extension of the successful low power V850ES/Jx3-L 32-bit MCUs that were introduced in early 2010. They are designed for low power, portable applications with high density memory from 768 kilobyte (KB) flash/80KB RAM to 1 megabyte (MB) flash/80KB RAM to support increasing memory demand. Four of these high memory density MCUs are equipped with a USB 2.0 interface to support communication. The new MCUs achieve industry-leading low power consumption with built-in large capacity memory.
These new MCUs are ideal for applications such as smart meters and healthcare equipment. Their low power capability combined with 1MB flash and 80KB RAM memory is perfectly suited to smart meters. Many smart meters are subject to regulatory power limits. Yet with more communication radios and more complex software, every component, including the MCU, has to consume less power to keep the system under the limit. The increasing amount of communication software can be adequately supported by the larger Flash memory. Healthcare systems, especially portable measurement and monitoring devices such as blood glucose meters, can take advantage of the low power to extend battery life and utilize the large Flash memory for data storage. The USB support enables these healthcare systems to support patient-doctor information exchange, such as the Continua Alliance standard. Moreover, the 32-bit processing power can support graphic computation for different displays from segmented LCD to dot matrix and OLED.
Software complexity continues to increase in many applications. Product designers are faced with the difficult design decision between extending design cycles to reduce software size and paying for extra external memory to shorten design time. The high density Flash eliminates this design dilemma. These V850 MCUs with up to 1MB Flash can support many applications without resorting to external memory.
Renesas Electronics’ V850ES/JG3-L MCUs address these needs, and even in the J Series, these new products reduce the normal operating current by 50 percent compared to the company’s existing products, achieving industry-leading low power consumption while providing large internal memory capacities.
In conjunction with the product announcement, Renesas Electronics Europe has introduced a V850ES/Jx3-L low power USB stick demonstrator. This kit utilizes a V850ES/JG3-L with 512KB Flash to provide a platform that demonstrates the different standby modes. The kit supports current consumption measurement with use of an ampere meter. It also demonstrates RAM retention and real time clock operation in the lowest power mode. This demonstrator is available now. The free demo kit can be obtained by registering at www.renesas.eu/tokyocool.
To support the evaluation of the V850ES/Jx3-L, Renesas Electronics Europe provides a target board, the QB-V850ESJG3LUSB-TB, which is designed for use with a MiniCube2 debugger, the QB-MINI2-EA. The MCU used in this target board is a V850ES/Jx3-L with 512KB Flash and 40K RAM. This solution will be available in March 2011.
Key features of the V850ES/JG3-L MCUs:
(1) Large-capacity on-chip memories contribute to reducing total costs associated with both the software development effort and the system structure
The new MCUs provide either 768KB or 1MB of on-chip Flash memory and 80KB of on-chip RAM. Compared to earlier products, these devices can help reduce the effort required to compress software programs, eliminating the need for costly external memory.
(2) High-speed processing achieved with the industry’s lowest power consumption
These new devices achieve a power consumption of 0.9 milliwatt (mW) per 1 MIPS (see Note 1) at 20 megahertz (MHz) operation. Furthermore, while providing improved peripheral functionality, such as USB 2.0 and real-time counter functions, these devices achieve low current consumption of 0.7 µA (with the real-time counter operating) in standby mode. Since they also support 2.0 V low-voltage operations when operating at 2.5 MHz, they can contribute to longer battery life in portable information terminals and other battery operated electronic equipment.
(3) Easy reuse of existing software assets from other J Series devices
With the introduction of these new products, the J Series now includes a total of 125 products providing from 16KB to 1MB of flash memory, from 8KB to 80KB of RAM, and from 40 to 144 pins. Since it is easy to reuse software assets if the end-product manufacturer selects a device from the same series, the J Series provides powerful support for reducing development time and costs.
Please refer to the separate sheet for the main specifications of the V850ES/JG3-L MCUs.
Note 1) MIPS
The ability to execute one million instructions per second. The Dhrystone benchmark is a program used to evaluate arithmetic performance in computers.
Remarks
SuperFlash memory technology used in NEC Electronics’ 32-bit devices is licensed from Silicon Storage Technology Inc. SuperFlash is registered of Silicon Storage Technology in the U.S., Japan, and other countries. All other registered trademarks or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About Renesas Electronics Europe
Renesas Electronics Europe with its Business Operations Centre located in Dusseldorf, Germany, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), the world’s number one supplier of microcontrollers and a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions including microcontrollers, SoC solutions and a broad-range of analog and power devices. Renesas Electronics’ European structure is comprised of five dedicated business groups serving the region’s key markets: automotive, communications & consumer, industrial, secure MCU applications, and mobile platforms. The business groups are supported by the Engineering Group, which itself includes the Engineering Design Centre; the European Quality Centre that provides technical support to local customers in Europe; and the European Technology Centre to design leading-edge products specifically for the European market. Further information about Renesas Electronics Europe can be found at:www.renesas.eu.
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