Renesas — Broad New Family of Arm Cortex-M-Based MCUs Offers High Security and Software Flexibility

The Renesas RA family is a new range of 32-bit MCUs which is based on the Arm^® Cortex^®-M core architecture, and which benefits from Renesas’ best-inclass technology for embedded system peripherals.

The RA family includes the RA2, RA4 and RA6 series, giving users a wide choice of performance ratings and features. Designers using the Renesas RA family can meet the requirements for scalability, power consumption and performance of almost any embedded end product.

The launch of the RA family offers a new option for designers working in an Arm Cortex-M environment, and who want to retain existing software assets.

It is an alternative to the Renesas Synergy™ family of MCUs, which includes parts based on various Arm Cortex-M cores. Synergy is an excellent solution for customers wanting a complete off-the-shelf software platform solution, giving them very fast time to market.

The RA family is an alternative for customers who want the freedom to choose their own software environment and to be able to reuse their existing software assets.

Now the addition of the RA MCU family gives designers a Renesas option which offers the flexibility to use existing and legacy software for the Arm Cortex-M architecture.

Compared to competing Arm Cortex-Mbased MCUs, the RA family provides stronger embedded security, superior CoreMark^® performance, and lower-power operation. Certification for Arm's Platform Security Architecture provides customers with the confidence to quickly deploy secure IoT endpoint and edge devices, and smart factory equipment for Industry 4.0 applications.

There is broad feature and pin compatibility across the three series of RA MCUs.

This provides scalability and easy code re-use between one device and another. The RA family includes:

• RA2A1, offering highly integrated, high-accuracy analog capabilities and an Arm Cortex-M23 core
• RA4M1, for control applications which drive a segment LCD panel. It offers low-power operation and high performance thanks to its Arm Cortex-M4 core
• RA6M1, ideal for IoT endpoint devices because of its high-level security features
• RA6M2, suitable for automation applications. Upward-compatible with RA6M1 devices.
• RA6M3, offering the highest performance specifications in the family, with the largest memory options and a rich feature set including TFT LCD controller, 2D graphics engine, Ethernet connectivity and Hi-Speed USB. Like the other RA6 devices, the RA6M3 is based on an Arm Cortex-M4 core.

The RA family MCUs include an integrated capacitive touch-sensing unit for display control.

The Renesas RA Flexible Software Package (FSP) gives a quick and versatile way to build secure connected IoT devices, and provides production-ready peripheral drivers to help users take advantage of the RA FSP ecosystem.

Dev Kits Provide Rich Evaluation Environment for Renesas RA Series Microcontrollers

Renesas provides full-featured development kits for each of the series of products in its new Renesas RA family of 32-bit microcontrollers, which are based on the Arm^® Cortex^®-M core architecture.

The RA family includes the RA2, RA4 and RA6 series, giving users a wide choice of performance ratings and features. Designers using the Renesas RA family can meet the requirements for scalability, power consumption and performance of almost any embedded end product.

The range of RA family evaluation kits includes:

• EK-RA2A1 (RTK7EKA2A1S00001BU), which features the R7FA2A1AB3CFM, a 48MHz MCU based on an Arm Cortex-M23 core. The MCU includes 256kbytes of code-storage Flash and 32kbytes of RAM.
• EK-RA4M1 (RTK7EKA4M1S00001BU), which features the R7FA4M1AB3CFP, a 48MHz MCU based on an Arm Cortex-M4 core. This also includes 256kbytes of code-storage Flash and 32kbytes of RAM.
• EK-RA6M1 (RTK7EKA6M1S00001BU), which features the R7FA6M1AD3CFP, a 120MHz MCU based on an Arm Cortex-M4 core. This includes 512kbytes of code-storage Flash and 256kbytes of RAM.
• EK-RA6M2 (RTK7EKA6M2S00001BU), which features the R7FA6M2AF3CFB, a 120MHz MCU based on an Arm Cortex-M4 core. It has 1Mbyte of code-storage Flash and 384kbytes of RAM.
• EK-RA6M3 (RTK7EKA6M3S00001BU), which features the R7FA6M3AH3CFC, a 120MHz MCU based on an Arm Cortex-M4 core. It has 2Mbytes of code-storage Flash and 640kbytes of RAM. It also includes an Ethernet interface and a USB Hi-Speed Host and Device interface.
• EK-RA6M3G (RTK7EKA6M3S01001BU), a special version of the EK-RA6M3 development kit which includes extra support for a graphics interface. It has a graphics expansion board featuring a 4.3” TFT color LCD with capacitive touch overlay.

Each board provides native access to the MCU’s pins via four 40-pin male headers. It also provides current-measurement points for monitoring the current through the MCU.

All these boards support up to two PMOD connections. The EK-RA6M3 and EK6M3G kits also offer additional expansion options to popular platforms, including Seeed Grove^® system (I2C), Digilent Pmod™ (SPI and UART), Arduino™ (Uno R3) or MikroElektronika™ mikroBUS connectors.

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