MCUs Target 8-/16-bit Embedded Applications

Renesas Electronics Corp.'s RL78 family of extremely low power microcontrollers (MCUs) integrates advanced features from both the R8C and the 78K (78K0, 78K0R) families to deliver lower power, enhanced performance, and higher integration, providing a robust migration path. The new products are built around the new RL78 CPU core, which is based on the low-power, high-performance 78K0R CPU core, and incorporates an extensive range of powerful peripheral functions from the R8C and 78K families, making them ideal for a number of applications including battery-operated devices and household applications.

The RL78 MCUs feature operating current of only 70μA/MHz and standby current of 0.7μA with the real-time clock (RTC) and low-voltage detection (LVD) functions active. The new family’s power-efficient design, based on a 130nm process node, can deliver 41 Dhrystone million instructions per second (DMIPS) when operating at 32MHz. The new RL78 MCUs’ advanced process technology enables higher integration of on-chip components such as a 32MHz ±1 percent on-chip oscillator, data flash with background operation supporting up to 1 million re-write cycles, and 1.6V to 5.5V operation. These features provide greater functionality while reducing overall system cost, which are vital requirements for the next generation 8-bit designs.

The RL78 family will be comprised of both general purpose and application-specific standard MCUs. The general purpose “G” series will include a total of 302 products in the RL78/G12 Group and RL78/G13 Group. The initial products will offer extensive scalability with 2kB to 512kB of program space and with package options ranging from 20- to 128-pins.

The RL78 MCUs are the first family of MCUs to be developed using an integrated platform following the merger and to employ the new 130nm process. The RL78 Family combines and extends technology from the earlier R8C and 78K 8-bit and 16-bit MCUs from the two merged companies (NEC Electronics Corp. and Renesas Technology Corp.), contributes to lower overall system power consumption, provides an extensive variety of different product versions, and will help developers reduce overall system costs. The RL78 Family was developed to meet the future requirements of the 8-bit and 16-bit MCU market for the foreseeable future.

Renesas Electronics

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