MCU family achieves 70uA/MHz and delivers 41DMIPS at 32MHz

The RL78 mcu range is built around the new RL78 cpu core, which is based on the low power, high performance 78K0R cpu core and incorporates a range of peripheral functions from the R8C and 78K families. According to Renesas, this makes them ideal for applications such as battery operated devices and household applications. The RL78 mcus have an operating current of 70µA/MHz and standby current of 0.7µA with the real time clock (RTC) and low voltage detection (LVD) functions active. The design is based on a 130nm process node, and is said to deliver 41 Dhrystone million instructions per second (DMIPS) when operating at 32MHz. According to Renesas, the RL78 microcontrollers' advanced process technology enables higher integration of on chip components such as a 32MHz +/-1% on chip oscillator, data flash with background operation supporting up to 1million rewrite cycles, and 1.6 to 5.5V operation. Renesas says these features are vital requirements for the next generation 8bit 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 new RL78 mcu family is designed to meet the market needs by providing the latest in low power technology, and feature rich integration geared for 8bit applications," said Shigeo Mizugaki, senior vice president, Renesas Electronics. "The great acceptance of the R8C and 78K families across multiple markets over the last few years is true evidence of Renesas Electronics' commitment to the embedded community. The RL78 family not only combines key attributes from both of these families to offer the best migration path to current Renesas Electronics' users, but it also introduces state-of-the-art features which enable the design of more innovative products. The new family's native low power technology, high-component integration and extensive built-in safety mechanisms make them ideal for a number of applications including battery-operated devices and household appliances."