Weekly Reading丨RX series MCU complete software and tools provide guarantee for development

If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools. Powerful microcontrollers also need excellent development tools and software support. Renesas Electronics provides a full range of high-quality software and high-specification easy-to-use development tools for the RX series microcontrollers, as well as various evaluation boards and kits for the RX family development environment. This ensures that users can easily and quickly use the RX series microcontrollers to build their own product projects.

Renesas Electronics provides two driver packages for the RX series microcontrollers, one is the RX driver package without an operating system, and the other is the RX real-time operating system package with FreeRTOSTM, which helps to shorten the system development time and quickly start your application. These packages include onboard programs, peripheral function drivers, middleware, and usage documents, etc. In addition, sample code and documentation for applications are also provided.

The RX series' application programming interface (API) and firmware integration technology (FIT)-based software module configuration make our software products compatible with IAR Systems' Embedded Workbench, Micrium software products, etc., helping you focus more on developing applications.

The peripheral drivers for the RX series microcontrollers include peripheral code generators, SD card drivers, serial memory drivers, and more.

The development tools for the RX series microcontrollers provide a code generator plug-in that can automatically generate peripheral drivers. This plug-in is included in CS+ and e2 studio, and can configure user settings in a graphical interface and create source code for the control program.

RX600 series microcontrollers can use the RSPI port to control SD card devices through the program software of the 1-bit SD mode SDIO interface.

The driver software includes R1EX24xxx, R1EV24xxx and HN58X24xxx series EEPROM memories that support I2C interface, R1EX25xxx and HN58X25xxx series EEPROM memories that support SPI interface, and also includes Flash memory that supports SPI and disguised memory of QSPI serial bus.

The middleware software for the RX series microcontrollers includes USB driver software, file system, protocol stack, security encryption software, imaging software, audio software, etc.

The device class drivers and firmware for the USB peripherals of the RX family of microcontrollers can be used together with the USB IP to allow you to easily start USB system development.

The open source FAT file system M3S-TFAT-Tiny is a FAT file system that requires very little memory and supports various types of storage devices. It can easily implement read/write file operations on SD memory cards and USB flash drives.

The ultra-compact TCP/IP protocol stack for the RX Family software package is designed to save memory space and provides sample drivers for LAN controllers, while the functionality of the protocol stack can be easily verified using the Renesas Starter Kit.

The RX series software package provides the encryption library (AES, RSA, DES, SHA) of the RX series. This advanced encryption library will help you develop a secure embedded system. In addition, Renesas' unique Trusted Secure IP can quickly and efficiently control functions such as AES (128-bit or 256-bit key), AES-GCM, AES-CMAC, random number generation, AES key management, thereby achieving functions such as secure firmware updates and secure boot.

The image library of the RX series microcontroller contains a software library for JPEG image encoding and decoding functions. The JPEG software library consists of a JPEG decoder (JPEG image decoding library) and a JPEG encoder (JPEG image encoding library). The software provides an optional hard accelerator version and a full software version, which can realize the encoding and decoding of color still images, and is very suitable for digital cameras and other image-related applications.

The DSP library of the RX series microcontroller is a software library used to implement the digital signal processing functions of general microcontrollers. It can quickly implement functions such as 32-bit integer FFT and IIR filtering.

The audio library M3S-S2-Tiny for RX series microcontrollers is a sound playback system that requires very little memory. Its original algorithm can compress and expand sound compactly and at high speed in ADPCM mode. It can be used to add real sound and voice output functions to devices that previously only provided visual interfaces or indicated operations.

The RX series software package includes two real-time operating systems (RTOS), RI600V4 and RI600PX. The RI600V4 real-time operating system complies with the μITRON4.0 specification and is suitable for embedded systems with real-time capabilities and multi-tasking functions. If you use the memory protection function, you can choose the RI600PX developed based on the RI600V4 and with the memory protection function added. It can be used with the RX series microcontrollers (RX700, RX600 and RX200 series) embedded with the memory protection function and ensure the high reliability of the system.

The RX series microcontroller software package provides peripheral drivers, middleware, and source code for device control example applications, allowing users to quickly start engineering projects.

Renesas Electronics supports the entire development process of applications for the RX Family of microcontrollers through development tools such as easy-to-use emulators and programming tools, as well as integrated development environments (e²studio and CS+). At the same time, the CC-RX compiler is also available to support existing other development environments.

The highly intuitive GUI in e²studio helps you embed the software into your project and configure it easily. It also allows you to easily manage packages that support Firmware Integration Technology (FIT), increasing the versatility of the software.

In addition, e²studio and CS+ fully support smart tools (SmartManual, Smart Browser, etc.), which help improve work efficiency. e²studio also supports QE tools (Quick and Effective Tool Solutions), which use our development technology to help and increase software debugging speed. They help enhance system function development, including motor solutions, touch solutions, USB solutions, etc.

Renesas Electronics' e²studio and CS+ are two integrated development environments that provide strong support for microcontroller software development and the entire embedded system development.

e²studio is an integrated development environment built on the open source Eclipse framework. Combined with the multi-functional editor and project management tools of Eclipse CDT, e²studio has various extended functions from Renesas Electronics. e²studio is suitable for those who are familiar with the Eclipse environment or want to use the plug-in function of Eclipse IDE, which helps to reduce the time users spend on development.

CS+ is an integrated development environment originally designed by Renesas Electronics that brings together all the development environment elements required for Renesas Electronics 8-bit to 32-bit microcontrollers. The product supports the entire application development from coding to building and debugging, and provides many features such as static code analysis and graphical display of variable values. Renesas Electronics also provides a complete selection of tutorials, which even beginners can find simple, usable, and safe to use. CS+ is suitable for users who use Renesas Electronics microcontrollers.

Renesas Electronics' high-performance, low-cost on-chip debug emulator can be implemented as an in-circuit debug emulator and can also be used as a flash programmer, supporting execution address and data access break functions and an on-chip trace function.

The E1 emulator enables on-chip debugging emulation and flash programming functions, and it supports major microcontrollers from Renesas Electronics. This economical development tool provides basic debugging functions, and hot-swappable adapters allow you to expand debugging functions.

The E2 emulator is an advanced on-chip debugging emulator and flash programmer developed based on the concept of "improving development efficiency". The download speed is twice that of the E1 emulator, which will help shorten development time.

The E2 Emulator Lite (abbreviated as "E2 Lite") is an on-chip debug emulator and flash programmer for RX and RL78 series microcontrollers. More affordable than the E1, the E2 Lite is suitable for work in various fields such as hobbyists, education, and professional development.

The E20 emulator is an advanced on-chip debug emulator and flash programmer that provides enhanced trace and RAM monitoring functions for RX600 and RX700 products, as well as the full debug functions of the E1 emulator. It can be combined with a microcontroller that includes a trace output function to perform large-capacity trace to improve debug performance.

The Flash programmer can download and burn programs through the Renesas Electronics Flash Programmer and PG-FP6 programmer. Different flash programmers can be selected according to development requirements.

The Renesas Flash Programmer can be programmed via the Renesas on-chip debug emulator (E2 Emulator, E2 Emulator Lite, E1 Emulator, and E20 Emulator) or using the serial or USB interface of the RX Series. It is best suited for Flash programming in testing, development, or small programs.

The PG-FP6 Flash Programmer can support stand-alone programming and can run without the use of a PC, allowing you to program at high speed, and is best suited for large-scale programming or updates in the field.

Renesas Electronics provides easy-to-use evaluation boards and kits as well as target boards for the RX Series microcontrollers. Renesas Electronics Starter Kits contain the necessary boards and software for beginners of Renesas Electronics microcontrollers. Renesas Electronics Solution Starter Kits help you easily evaluate motor control and touch key control solutions. In addition, a variety of boards produced by partners are also available.

The Starter Kit is an ALL-IN-ONE kit for evaluating and introducing microcontrollers. It is the most affordable development kit for you. All functions and elements of the microcontroller can be evaluated with the starter kit, control signals can be output from the microcontroller, and it can be connected to the user system for debugging.

This kit allows you to easily evaluate the motor control and touch button control solutions provided by Renesas Electronics. It includes an evaluation board, devices (motor, etc.), emulators, development tools, sample programs, etc., which are necessary to evaluate the solution.

The kit has the emulator circuit mounted on the board, so you can design application software without purchasing an additional emulator. With the sample demonstrations preinstalled in this kit, you can simplify the evaluation of the human machine interface (HMI) and experience performance issues such as firmware updates and LCD controllers and 2D drawing engines that utilize the Dual-Bank Flash function that fully utilizes the advantages of the RX65N and RX651 microcontrollers.

This development board is reasonably priced and can be used to develop your own products in which the RX series microcontroller will be used, such as home appliances or automation equipment for buildings and industries. You can use this board to create and evaluate prototypes because through holes can be used for pin headers, allowing the peripheral circuit to be freely expanded, and it is also possible to mount an emulator circuit on the board.

The development kit targets special demand applications, such as capacitive touch function, smart mode, 16-bit A/D converter, amplifier gain, etc. In addition, the demo software pre-programmed in Flash ROM can be used to check the operation of USB, LCD, capacitive touch, voice memo, sensor control, pedometer, etc.