RX111 Renesas Promotion Board: Cost-Effective Evaluation for Multiple Applications

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — September 23, 2013 — Renesas Electronics Corporation, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the availability of the new RX111 Promotion Board (RPB), a unique and cost-effective evaluation platform designed to facilitate the evaluation of Renesas’ RX111 microcontrollers (MCUs) in a wide variety of applications, including mobile healthcare, smart meters, and industrial and building automation. The RX111 RPB comes with an integrated power measurement tool, enabling the user to easily measure the power consumption of the MCU running on the RPB.

“Energy efficiency and low power consumption are critical elements when designing for Internet of Things applications, like mobile healthcare, sensors and smart meter devices, which typically require operation at very low power levels with high levels of performance,” said Ritesh Tyagi, senior director, microcontroller products, Renesas Electronics America. “The new RX111 RPB with integrated power measurement tool delivers low-power development kit that embedded designers require to develop and deliver embedded solutions for next-generation applications.”

Ideal for Evaluating the RX111 in Low-Power Applications
The RX111 RPB comes with all the software and hardware required to easily develop and evaluate applications on the RX111 MCUs. Designed to support a broad range of markets, the new RX111 MCU group delivers a combination of ultra-low-power consumption, on-chip connectivity and superior performance at attractive price points. Developers can use the RX111 RPB to test MCU performance in their low-end 32-bit embedded applications, including mobile health care, smart meters, sensors/detectors, and industrial and building automation.

Full-Featured RPB
The new RPB includes a Segger J-Link on-chip debug function with a target RX111 MCU. It offers both host and peripheral USB connectors, as well as a supercap to allow continued operation when the power is removed. For example, the RX111 RPB can transfer a file from memory to a USB thumb drive using only the supercap as the power supply source. The RX111 is one of the few ultra-low-power MCUs to offer USB host support.

The RX111 RPB comes with a number of sample applications, including a low-power demo with a PC graphical user interface (GUI) to allow developers to measure of the power consumption of the target RX111 in each of its low-power modes. This allows users to switch the MCU into a variety of low-power modes and display the power consumption on a GUI window.

The RX111 RPB includes the following elements:

• RX111 target board with integrated power measurement
• Graphical user interface for the power measurement system
• Free of charge host and peripheral USB sample code
• Low-power demo application
• Low-power file copy USB Host to USB Memory Stick demo application
• PMOD & Energy Harvesting connector
• Future Application Header
• New Eclipse-based e²studio Integrated Development Environment
• Renesas C/C++ compiler with 128K code limited after 60 days of use
• Graphical Code Generator (Applilet)
• Reference Design, Software Code, Tutorial, Quick Start Guide Documents

Renesas RX111 MCUs
The RX111 is the newest member of the RX family of 32-bit MCUs, and brings True Low Power^TM technology to the 32-bit world. The RX111 devices achieve current consumption as low as 100 µA / MHz in active mode and 0.66 µA in RTC mode with all SRAM maintained. Its wake up time is just 4.8 µS from the lowest power modes, making it ideal for a wide range of low-power applications. The flash memory offers reprogramming across the full voltage range of 1.8 – 3.6v with data flash and a typical endurance of 1 million write erase cycles as well as guaranteed data retention of up to 20 years. The RX111 devices also include an on-chip USB interface along with a wide range of digital and analogue peripherals. The RX111 Group is available in a choice of small package options, supporting package sizes down to 4x4 mm and with flash sizes ranging from 16KB – 128KB.

Pricing and Availability
The RX111 RPB is available now on the Renesas website, and can be ordered today with the order code YRPBRX111. All the versions of the RX111 MCU Group are now available in sample quantities priced at US$15 per board. Mass production of the RX111 Group will be available by the end of 2013.