Renesas Electronics Launches 5V High-Performance RX660 32-bit MCU

Renesas Electronics Launches 5V High-Performance RX660 32-bit MCU with Superior Noise Tolerance for Home Appliances and Industrial Applications

First RX Family MCU to support CAN FD bus protocol, enabling high-speed communications in industrial equipment and robotics applications

Beijing, China, August 2, 2022 - Renesas Electronics, a global supplier of semiconductor solutions, today announced the launch of a new member of the RX 32-bit MCU product family - the RX660 microcontroller (MCU) product group . The new product supports 5V operating voltage and provides excellent noise tolerance for home appliances and industrial equipment exposed to high electromagnetic interference. As the first 5V-supported device in Renesas' high-end RX general-purpose MCU products, the RX660 is also the first device in the RX product family with a built-in CAN FD controller, enabling high-speed data communication. The high operating voltage of the new RX660 MCU can eliminate the external noise suppression components required by many current 3V MCUs, allowing users to reduce development time and component costs and improve system quality.

In recent years, the scale of software has continued to expand as functional safety and cybersecurity have become key components of electronic systems. As more product models emerge, more and more products use real-time operating systems to simplify software maintenance. In addition, product designs must be compatible with over-the-air (OTA) updates to cope with the continuous enhancement of future functions. To meet these needs, Renesas has developed the RX660. The product uses the RXv3 core (6.00 CoreMark/MHz) with a maximum operating frequency of 120MHz, providing high performance and excellent power efficiency. These devices have a large capacity Flash of up to 1 megabyte (MB) and up to 128 kilobytes (KB) of RAM, and are available in a variety of package options (48 pins to 144 pins). In particular, the effective number of general-purpose I/O pins is 10% higher than that of the earlier RX210 products that support 5V operating voltage. For example, the 144-pin version of the RX660 has an effective pin count of 134, 11 more than the RX210. As the number of I/Os increases, more sensors can be connected to the MCU of a specific package, making it easier to upgrade existing systems.

“Noise suppression is critical for home appliances and industrial products because electromagnetic waves in the surrounding environment can cause system malfunctions or performance degradation,” said Sakae Ito, Vice President of the IoT Platform Business Division at Renesas Electronics Corporation. “Renesas has introduced the new RX660 MCU in response to strong demand from users designing products with high power supply voltages. We are pleased to help simplify the product design process for our customers.”

“Daikin has been using Renesas RX MCUs in its major air conditioner products for more than 10 years, and we are very excited about the new RX660 MCUs with their excellent noise tolerance,” said Eisuke Yamada, Team Leader, Procurement Strategy Division, Global Procurement Department, Daikin Industries, Ltd. “RX MCUs offer superior CPU performance and flash memory for improved real-time performance, as well as the ability to expand development with pin-compatible devices. We believe these are essential for MCU products.”

First RX MCU to support CAN FD

CAN is becoming increasingly popular in industrial equipment and robotics, but the use of a large number of sensors has led to an increase in data traffic, resulting in insufficient bandwidth, which requires multiple buses and incurs higher costs. The RX660 is the first MCU in the RX family to integrate a CAN FD controller that supports fast, high-capacity data transmission. Among them, CAN FD allows a large number of safety signals to be transmitted in a single frame, allowing stronger security to be built into the device.

Two development boards available

The RX660 product group has two development boards for prototyping and detailed evaluation. The RX660 Target Board is an inexpensive prototyping board that allows users to easily turn their ideas into usable hardware and software. The Renesas Starter Kit for RX660 is for detailed evaluation, allowing users to fully exploit the full capabilities of the RX660 when developing applications.

A winning combination

Renesas combines the RX660 with a variety of analog and power management devices for power conversion systems to create a "Winning Combination for Online UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply)". This solution effectively integrates all key power conversion components including inverter, buck regulator, battery boost regulator and PFC into a single chip, and its activities can be remotely monitored via Bluetooth. Based on the various products in its portfolio, Renesas has now launched more than 300 "Winning Combinations" to help users shorten the design process and accelerate time to market.

Availability

The RX660 MCUs and development boards are available now.