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  3. Renesas — RA8P1 1GHz Arm Cortex-M85 and Ethos-U55 NPU Based AI Microcontroller

Renesas — RA8P1 1GHz Arm Cortex-M85 and Ethos-U55 NPU Based AI Microcontroller

Renesas

 

Renesas RA8P1 1GHz Arm Cortex-M85 and Ethos-U55 NPU Based AI MCU

Industry-first AI Accelerated MCU powered by the Arm Cortex-M85 and Ethos-U55 uNPU delivers advanced AI/ML capabilities to enable Voice, Vision and Predictive Analytics applications

The RA8P1 group features Renesas’s first 32-bit AI-accelerated microcontrollers (MCUs) powered by the high-performance Arm® Cortex®-M85 (CM85) with Helium™ MVE and Ethos™-U55 NPU. It delivers 256 GOPS* of AI performance, a breakthrough CPU performance of over 7300 CoreMarks and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities enabling voice, vision, and real-time analytics AI applications on a single chip. The RA8P1 MCUs built on the advanced 22nm ULL process are available in single and dual-core options with a Cortex-M33 core embedded on the dual-core MCUs.

The RA8P1 MCUs integrate high-performance CPU cores with large memory, multiple external memory interfaces, and a rich peripheral set optimized for AI applications. Single and dual-core devices in 224 and 289 BGA packages are available, to address diverse use cases across broad markets. Secure Element-like functionality is built-in with advanced cryptographic security IP, immutable storage, and tamper protection, to deliver truly secure Edge AI and IoT applications.

To streamline and accelerate development, the RA8P1 MCUs are supported by the Flexible Software Package, a comprehensive set of hardware and software development tools, and RUHMI - a highly optimized AI software platform providing all necessary tools for AI development, model optimization, and conversion, fully integrated with e2 studio.

Key Features

  • 1GHz Arm Cortex-M85 & 250MHz Cortex-M33 cores
  • Ethos-U55 NPU, 256GOPS @500MHz
  • 0.5/1MB MRAM, 4/8MB Flash options
  • 2MB SRAM including TCM and 64KB caches
  • Parallel and MIPI-CSI2 camera interface (I/F) for vision AI
  • I2S and PDM I/F for voice AI
  • GLCDC w/ parallel RGB and MIPI-DSI I/Fs
  • 2D drawing engine
  • xSPI compliant octal SPI with XIP & DOTF
  • Renesas Security IP, TrustZone, tamper protection
  • Secure boot with immutable storage for first stage bootloader
  • 32/16-bit high-resolution timers, 32-bit ultra-low-power timer
  • 16-bit ADC, 12-bit DAC, HS comparators
  • Gigabit Ethernet, TSN switch, USB2.0 HS/FS, CAN-FD
  • SDHI, SPI, I3C, I2C serial interfaces
  • 32/16-bit external memory I/F (CS/SDRAM)

Applications/End Products

  • Industrial Automation: Machine vision, predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, vibration analysis
  • Consumer: Video doorbells, smart thermostats, smart speakers
  • Building Automation: Security or access panels with face recognition, occupancy sensors with people detection/counting, glass breaking detection
  • Smart Homes: Robotic cleaners, learning thermostats
  • Home Appliances: Coffee makers with level detection, ovens hoods with gesture recognition on/off control, washing machines with anomaly detection or vibration analysis
  • Medical: Patient fall detection, X-ray or MRI/CT image analysis
  • Office Automation: Fingerprint scanners with live fingerprint detection, barcode readers
  • Smart City: Traffic and pedestrian Monitoring, parking lot monitoring

RA8P1 Block Diagram

 

Renesas — RA8P1 1GHz Arm Cortex-M85 and Ethos-U55 NPU Based AI Microcontroller

 

AI-Accelerated RA8P1 Microcontroller

 

Evaluation Kit for RA8P1 MCU Group

EK-RA8P1

The EK-RA8P1 evaluation kit is designed to enable users to easily evaluate the RA8P1 MCU features and develop embedded system applications using Renesas' Flexible Software Package (FSP) and e2 studio IDE. Users can utilize the rich onboard features and their choice of popular ecosystem add-ons to implement a broad range of applications, including artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). A bundle of example projects is available for users to download and quickly evaluate key peripherals to accelerate the proof-of-concept development.

This kit is packed with a 7.0-inch, 1024x600 parallel LCD board and a 5Mpx camera module. Preloaded demonstrations that showcase the excellent performance of the RA8P1 can be found within the kit. Combine the LCD board and camera module with the EK-RA8P1 board to enable rapid voice, vision, and real-time analytics AI developments.