Renesas may add ARM based mcu to portfolio
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Renesas Electronics has not ruled out the possibility of adding an ARM based mcu to its portfolio. "Renesas is the largest user of ARM cores in Japan for SoCs," Shigeo Mizugaki, pictured, senior vice president of the MCU business unit, told New Electronics.
"In that market," he continued, "customers deploy open OS platforms and ARM is excellent for that." But he said his customers are concerned with performance and there was no reason to add an ARM core at the moment.
Meanwhile, work is continuing to unify the microcontroller range inherited following the merger between Renesas and NEC. "We want to get all products on to one platform and to create a process under which new IP can be generated." Part of the process will see the number of cpu cores reduced from the current five to three in the future. Mizugaki said: "While the commitment to continuity is important, cores for the high, middle and low end will be enough."
Mizugaki said a new family of mcus will be announced in the near future and added that the 'long tail' of small applications and companies is an 'important market'.
He has also rationalised the fab technologies. Both Renesas and NEC brought three processes to the merger. "In the future," Mizugaki concluded, "high end devices will be made on a 40nm process, mid range devices on Renesas' 90nm process and low end devices on NEC's 130nm technology. This has been a very important transition."
