Renesas is expanding its RL78 MCU family with 8- and 16-bit devices for energy-efficient applications. The new type RL78/G24 is the most powerful. It contains a Flexible Application Accelerator (FAA) and a powerful CPU (48 MHz) with an operating frequency of up to 48 MHz. The extended peripheral functions, including analog and timer, are suitable for motor, power supply and lighting control. With the FAA, the device performs inverter control, encoding, sensing and arithmetic operations independently of the CPU, increasing processing speed.
"Previously, processing was carried out by the CPU core, which placed a considerable load on it," says Osamu Ogura from Tessera Technology. "The FAA integrated in the RL78/G24 makes it possible to split communication processing and power control, allowing us to shorten development time."
The FAA works independently of the CPU. A 12-bit A/D converter handles the simultaneous sampling of three channels at 1 µs. A high-speed comparator with 50 ns latency is available, as is a DALI-2 function in accordance with the communication standard for lighting applications. The module supports temperatures up to 125 °C. The compact housing is available with the smallest option of 3 x 3 mm.
Developers can use the Smart Configurator to easily generate driver code for peripheral functions via a graphical user interface, similar to other RL78 devices. Renesas also offers model-based design with Matlab and Simulink. The fast prototyping board can be used for evaluation, with interfaces for Arduino Uno and Pmod type 6A as well as Grove connectors for all pins. The device can be debugged and programmed with just one USB cable. Evaluation kits for motor and power/lighting applications are available.
In addition to the new high-end RL78/G24 device, the low-power RL78 family offers the RL78/G23, a standard model of the new generation. Renesas also offers a small-pin and small-memory version of the RL78/G22 with improved capacitive touch functionality and lower power consumption. Also available are the RL78/G15 and RL78/G16 devices, which support an ambient temperature of 125°C for the small-pin 8-bit MCU market.
Renesas supplies more than 3.5 billion MCU units annually. Approximately 50% of these are used in the automotive industry, with the remainder used in industrial applications, data centers and communications infrastructure.
For more information, please refer to the datasheet: www.renesas.com/us/en/document/dst/rl78g24-datasheet-rev100.
