Runs at speeds up to 100MHz, combines Arm TrustZone technology with Renesas’ Enhanced Security Encryption Engine for scalable storage and low power consumption
On December 9, 2020, Renesas Electronics Group (TSE: 6723), a global supplier of semiconductor solutions, today announced the expansion of its RA4 MCU product family with the launch of a new 32-bit RA4M3 microcontroller (MCU) product group. The RA4M3 MCU uses the Arm® Cortex®-M33 core based on the Armv8-M architecture, which increases the operating speed to 100MHz. The RA4M3 product family features high performance, Arm TrustZone® technology, Renesas Secure Encryption Engine, and scalable storage to facilitate the development of secure and reliable Internet of Things (IoT) edge devices for low-power applications such as security, metering, industrial and heating Air conditioning, etc.
Roger Wendelken, Senior Vice President, IoT and Infrastructure Business Division, Renesas Electronics, said, “I am very pleased with the rapid expansion of the Renesas RA product family since we launched the RA6M4 MCU product group in October this year. The RA6M4 is targeted for demanding applications. performance and high security, and the RA4M3 product family provides a good balance of performance and power consumption, while providing the same level of security features. In addition, customers have the flexibility to expand storage space according to the needs of continuous innovation in industrial and IoT applications.”
The RA4M3 product group is designed for low-power IoT applications that combine high performance, robust security, and larger storage space. The new MCUs combine TrustZone technology with Renesas’ enhanced security encryption engine, enabling customers to implement the functionality of a security chip in a variety of IoT designs. The secure cryptographic engine includes multiple symmetric and asymmetric cryptographic accelerators, advanced key management, secure product lifecycle management, resistance to power analysis attacks, and tamper detection.
The RA4M3 MCU consumes as low as 119μA/MHz when running the CoreMark algorithm in flash memory, 1.6mA in standby mode, and 30μs standby wake-up time, which is critical for IoT applications that run outdoors for long periods of time . For memory-intensive applications, designers can combine Quad-SPI and SD card interfaces with the MCU’s on-chip memory to increase storage capacity. Background running and Flash Bank SWAP features are ideal for running memory-optimized firmware updaters in the background. Large on-chip RAM with parity/ECC also makes the RA4M3 MCU ideal for security-conscious applications. The RA4M3 MCU also features a variety of integrated features to reduce BOM cost, including capacitive touch sensing, up to 1MB of on-chip flash memory, and peripherals for analog, communication and memory connectivity.
(Photo courtesy of Renesas)
RA4M3 Product Group Key Features
Based on 40nm process, 100MHz operation, using Arm Cortex-M33 core and TrustZone technology
On-chip integrated 1MB flash, 128KB RAM, 8KB data flash and 1KB standby SRAM
Low power consumption, the current is 119μA/MHz in the running mode, the current is 1.6mA in the standby mode, and the wake-up time is 30μs
Flash background operation and flash block swap function
Capacitive Touch Sensing Unit
A variety of interfaces, including Quad-SPI and SDHI interfaces, SSI, full-speed USB2.0, SCI and SPI/I2C
LQFP packages, covering 64-pin to 144-pin (LGA and BGA packages will also be available)
The RA4M3 product group using the Flexible Configuration Package (FSP) enables customers to reuse their legacy code and integrate with software from the Arm ecosystem and RA ecosystem partners to accelerate the development of complex connectivity and security features. FSP includes FreeRTOS and middleware, which provides developers with the preferred functionality to connect devices to the cloud, and can easily replace and extend these out-of-the-box capabilities with any other RTOS or middleware.
The FSP provides a range of efficient tools for development projects using the RA4M3 MCU. The development platform provided by the e2 studio integrated development environment can support all key development steps such as project creation and management, selection and configuration of modules, code development, code generation and debugging. FSP simplifies the development process and significantly speeds up the development process through GUI tools.
The Links: NL6448AC33-10 7MBR100VX120-50