Renesas Ecosystem Rob Dautel Sr. Manager, Ecosystem at Renesas
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CONTENTS
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TECH ARTICLE
ARM MODULE MARKET: KICKING INTO HIGH GEAR
COVER INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW WITH ROB DAUTEL SR. MANAGER, ECOSYSTEM AT RENESAS
Th for Al de Ec co am
We Ec too pa the
FEATURED ARTICLE
IN-DEPTH LOOK AT RENESAS’ MCU ECOSYSTEM
TECH ARTICLE
THE CHALLENGE OF UNIVERSITY-BASED EMBEDDED SYSTEMS COURSES
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The ARM Module Market is Kicking it Into High Gear Why Standards are Lagging Behind
by Wolfgang Heinz-Fischer Head of Marketing and PR, TQ-Group
For a long time, a wide range of providers have divided up the embedded ARM module market between themselves with their own form factors. With the unveiling of the ARM Cortex A9 processor, large companies from the x86 module market are now entering the ring. As is normal in the x86 market, they are now striving for standardization on the ARM module market. The interesting question is why no standards have been established so far on the ARM module market, and whether the newly-proposed standards will gain acceptance on the market. In any case there is no unity among the large x86 companies, and as a result, alongside the proprietary systems two different standard concepts are available on the market.
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TECH ARTICLE
In principle, both the board sizes as well as the pin assignment of the plug-in system are specified in a standard. Here most pins/functions of the processor are provided via the plug-in system. In some circumstances however, a few functions of the processor are not defined in the standard, are not lead to the outside and are therefore not available for use. Some other functions of the standard can be realized by corresponding extra chips. And finally, functions can be determined in the standard, which are not supported at all. If we examine the successful standards on the x86 market, such as COM Express, we can see that all the process functions are depicted.
If the functions provided by the processor and external chips differ significantly from the functions defined in the standard, you can assume that the price/performance ratio is not ideal. For example it’s easy to comprehend that a Porsche engine can’t function properly in a Polo chassis, and vice versa.
The ARM module market is now kicking into high gear—and the real question is, will standards lag too far behind?
Depending on the processor or chip set, however, some defined functions cannot be supported in the standard, because the processor or chip set does not provide this function. For example in the COM Express standard, 8 USB 2.0 interfaces are defined which are however supported by the fewest processor/chip set combinations. Normally between 4 and 6 USB 2.0 interfaces are available. The 24 PCI express lines defined in the COM Express Standard Pinout version 2 are normally not completely supported. An optimum standard is therefore characterized by on the one hand providing all the processor functions during application, i.e. via the plug-in system, and on the other hand by realizing all the other functions via extra chips. The less compromises have to be made regarding the offered functions and the functions required in the standard, the better a standard fits.
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TQ-Group’s Cortex A9 Module
If you look at a standard using the described aspects, it soon becomes clear that it was previously impossible to define a standard on the ARM mobile market. The difficulty of defining a standard in the past was due in a large part to the wide range of providers and form factors. The key reasons for this are the extremely different designs of the offered processors, which only have a very low common denominator. As a rule this includes LCD graphics, Ethernet, USB and UARTs as a minimum. However, often more than 50% of the interfaces differ from other providers with the same core
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and therefore make an efficient standard impossible. For example each manufacturer has its “special features” de- pending on the market orientation. They can include a cam- era interface, ADC, GPIO, Keypad, SATA, MMC, SDIO and SD Card or I²C interface. The performance of the ARM processors, especially ARM9 and ARM11 are still a long way off the performance and interfaces of the simplest x86 processors. The addressed applications are mainly used in industry and less in PCs. With the unveiling of the ARM Cortex A9 processor, the world has changed significantly. The ARM Cortex A9 processor pushes the dimensions of a low-end x86 processor and thereby penetrates traditional x86 applications. The ARM Cortex A9-based chips of the individual providers are comparable in their functions and are more and more similar to a x86 chip. They include in particular PCIe, HDMI, SATA, gigabit Ethernet and other PC-like graphics interfaces. An advantage of the ARM Cortex A9 processor compared to the x86 world, however, is the very low power loss and the normally small construction form, which predestines the ARM Cortex A9 processor for use in mobile applications. The very long availability, the application options in the extended temperature range as well as
TECH ARTICLE the slim operating systems, often license-free and therefore good value, make the ARM processor an object of desire in the industry. The leading x86 board manufacturers do not want to and cannot bypass this market development without losing market share.
performance and functionality. From the total of 230 pins, 177 are available for signals while the remaining 53 pins are required for the power supply and grounding. Depending on the processor used, however, not all the functions defined in the standard are realized.
Due to the clearly homogenous interface offer of ARM Cortex A9 processors, the question of standardization arises, especially under the aforementioned points. Or does the reason lie in the fact that the expectations for the anticipated quantity of new processors are in completely new areas? Alongside a range of proprietary systems, two standardization attempts on the market are vying for the affection of customers.
The maximum available functions defined in the standard include 4 PCI Express lanes, 1x gigabit Ethernet, 8 USB ports, 1x CAN bus, 1x I²C, 1x SPI, 1x LPC bus, 2x SATA, 1x 8 bit SDIO, 2x express card, HDA/AC’97, dual channel LVDS 24 bit, display port and diverse power and module management pins. A Q7 module which is fitted for example with a Freescale ARM Cortex A9 i.MX6 processor, only provides approx. 80 to 85% of the signals defined in the standard, while the rest of the signals of the processor are not available. On the other hand, the 2 PCI Express lanes, LPC bus, express card, display port and SM bus are not operated and only 2x USB and one SATA is realized. With other offered Q7 modules with low-power ARM processors the deviation is even greater. The question about when which ARM processor makes sense on a Q7 module is therefore decisive.
If we compare both standard solutions of Q7 and the ultra low-power computer-on modules (ULP-COM), initiated by Kontron, some features appear immediately. Alongside the purely technical points, special arguments which the providers are introducing for their solutions also count for users. These include the size, the plugin system and the signals which are provided in the solution. In the plug assignment and determination of the functions the systems go fundamentally different ways. The Q7 system is striving for exchangeability with existing x86 Q7 solutions, therefore essentially defining the PC interfaces. As a result it is not the special ARM Cortex A9 functions which are addressed here, but the Q7 module that uses the clearly lower power consumption of a corresponding ARM Cortex A9 Q7 module compared to a corresponding x86 Q7 module with similar
The ULP-COM system has another fundamental approach. The definition of the system places more emphasis on the specific functions of the ARM processors and does not strive for direct exchangeability with a corresponding x86 module, as with COM Express, for example. Depending on the requirement of the application a ULP-COM or a COM express module is therefore used here. COM Express
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is always used if a lot of USB interfaces and a range of PCI Express lanes are needed. If diverse displays, serial interfaces and, for example, a camera interface are necessary, the ARM solution is the better approach. The ULP-COM system attempts to determine the highest possible common denominator of the high-end ARM processors of various manufacturers as standard. Here the following also applies: depending on the processor used not all the functions are realized. Of the 314 pins, 257 are signal pins and 57 are supply pins. The maximum functions include 3 PCI Express lanes, 1x gigabit Ethernet, 3 USB ports, 4x serial, 2x CAN bus, 5x I²C, 2x SPI, 1x SATA, 1x 4 bit SDIO, 1x 8 bit eMMC, I2S/HDA, single channel LVDS 18/24 bit, 24 bit parallel LCD, HDMI, 1x SPDIF, 2x camera interface, GPIO and diverse power and module management pins. It also
Which system is right for which application is always a very individual decision. If size plays an important role and the functions of the specific processor are important, the proprietary systems are advantageous. If the shock and vibration requirements are decisive, the plug-in system used plays an important role. If a Q7 or COM Express module is used and if the new system is only intended to use less electricity, a Q7 or ULP-COM could be the correct decision. In any case the user has to be clear that a direct exchange between the existing x86 solutions and the ARM solutions is not possible without corresponding adjustments. And in case of a change, as a rule the application board is also optimized and revised. Mechanical exchangeability is therefore not so important. In any case—the good news is, the ARM embedded module market is finally kicking into high gear.
About the TQ-Group
The ARM Cortex A9 processor pushes the dimensions of a low-end x86 processor and thereby penetrates traditional x86 applications. applies that depending on the fitting, some of the signals defined in the standard are not supported by the processor and not all the processor signals are available on the plug. If you compare the system with a Q7 and a fitting with a Freescale ARM Cortex A9 i.MX6 processor, around 85% of the approx. 270 signal pins of the processor are provided at the ULP-COM plug. A proprietary system, like the TQ Cortex A9 module TQMa6x, can of course ideally represent the processor. Ideally the module has a minimum size and provides all the signals of the processor on the plug. Contrary to the standardized versions, the module has no pins which are not operated by the processor.
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As an electronics service provider (E²MS supplier and CEM) TQ offers the complete range of services from development, through production and service right up to product life cycle management. The services cover assemblies, equipment and systems including hardware, soft- ware and mechanics. Customers can obtain all services from TQ on a modular basis as individual services and also as a complete package according to their individual requirements. Standard products such as finished microcontroller modules (minimodules) complete the range of services. Through the combination of electronics services and finished system components, TQ offers customer-specific products as ODM products and thereby addresses customers who would like to receive finished products and at the same time benefit from the advantages of a customer-specific solution. ODM products are provided on time and economically using a comprehensive solution kit. The kit includes finished electronic, mechanical and software components including certification and licenses. The TQ Group employs more than 900 colleagues at their sites in Seefeld, Murnau, Peißenberg, Wetter/Ruhr, Chemnitz, Fontaines (Switzerland) and Shanghai (China). Further information on TQ can be found at www.tq-group.com ■
TECH ARTICLE
By Air, by Land, or by Sea Wherever your design takes you, embedded modules from TQ-Systems can get your product to market quicker and easier.
Our Systems on Modules (SOMs) are the smallest in the industry--without compromising quality and reliability-and bring out all the processor signals to the Tyco connectors. A TQ module can reduce your development time by as much as 12 months. For the full product line or to evaluate our modules with a starter kit : www.TQ-USA.com
TQ-Systems has decades of experience in developing and manufacturing System on Modules (SOMs) and complete devices for transportation in countless power and control applications. In the aerospace industry, for example, our modules are found in exterior and cabin lighting, baggage management, supplemental air conditioning systems, temperature control for food and beverages, engine controls, and more. Certifications such as aerospace standard EN 9100:2009 ensure quality and reliability for your projects. With offices to serve you in California and Massachusetts, we can provide you with sales, technical assistance, product distribution and support.
To order a Starter Kit or for more information: www.TQ-USA.com TQ-USA is the brand for a module product line represented in North America by Convergence Promotions, LLC
Technology in Quality
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INDUSTRIAL
AEROSPACE
SYSTEM ON A CHIP
MEDICAL
AVIATION
CONSUMER
THREADX: WHEN IT
REALLY COUNTS When Your Company’s Success, And Your Job, Are On The Line You Can Count On Express Logic’s ThreadX® RTOS
Express Logic has completed 14 years of successful business operation, T H R E and our flagship product, ThreadX, has been used in over 1 billion electronic devices and systems, ranging from printers to smartphones, from single-chip SoCs to multiprocessors. Time and time again, when leading manufacturers put their company on the line, when their engineering team chooses an RTOS for their next critical product, they choose ThreadX. Our ThreadX RTOS is rock-solid, thoroughly field-proven, and represents not only the safe choice, but the most cost-effective choice when your company’s product
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Contact Express Logic to fi nd out more about our ThreadX RTOS, FileX® fi le system, NetX™ Dual IPv4/IPv6 TCP/IP stack, USBX™ USB Host/Device/OTG stack, and PegX™ graphics toolkit for embedded GUI development. Also ask about our TraceX® real-time event trace and analysis tool, and StackX™, our stack size analysis tool that makestool stack overflows a thing of the patent-pending stack size analysis that makes stack overfl ows a past. And if you’re developing safety-critical products for aviation, industrial or medical applications, ask about our new Certification Pack™ for ThreadX.
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For a free evaluation copy, visit www.rtos.com • 1-888-THREADX L. Lam Edward Copyright © 2012, Express Logic, Inc. ThreadX, StackX,and andCertification CertificationPack Packare aretrademarks trademarksofofExpress ExpressLogic, Logic,Inc. Inc. ThreadX,FileX, FileX,and andTraceX TraceXare areregistered registeredtrademarks, trademarks,and andNetX, NetX,USBX, USBX,PrismX, PegX, StackX, All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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EMBEDDED WORKBENCH Eval Kit for ADSP Blackfin Family The ADSP-BF548 EZ-KIT Lite® provides developers with a cost-effective method for initial evaluation of the ADSP-BF54x Blackfin® Processors via a USBbased, PC-hosted tool set. With this EZ-KIT Lite, users can learn more about the Analog Devices (ADI) ADSP-BF548 hardware and software development, and quickly prototype a wide range of applications. The EZ-KIT Lite includes an ADSP-BF548 Blackfin Processor desktop evaluation board along with an evaluation suite of the VisualDSP++® development and debugging environment, including the C/C++ compiler, assembler, and linker. The evaluation suite of VisualDSP++ is designed to be used with the EZ-KIT Lite only. The EZ-KIT Lite ships with a 4x4 Keypad, Optical Thumbwheel, QVGA Touch Screen LCD and a 40 Gigabyte Hard Drive.
Dev Kit for NXP LPC2106
IAR Systems introduces a complete hardware and software development kit for ARM developers. The IAR KickStart Development Kit for NXP LPC2106 contains all necessary hardware and software and allows you to design, develop, implement and test your ARM applications on the LPC2106 chip from NXP. IAR KickStart Card for NXP LPC2106 has the following features: • Two serial ports • Reset button • In-system programming (ISP) button • Two user-defined buttons • 16 fully configurable LEDs
Cyclone V SoC Dev Kit The Altera® Cyclone® V SoC Development Kit offers a quick and simple approach to develop custom ARM® processor-based SOC designs accompanied by Altera’s low-power, low-cost Cyclone V FPGA fabric. This kit supports a wide range of functions, such as: • Processor and FPGA prototyping and power measurement • Industrial networking protocols • Motor control applications* • Acceleration of image- and video-processing applications* • PCI Express® (PCIe®) x4 lane with ~1,000 MBps transfer rate (endpoint or rootport)
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COVER INTERVIEW
Renesas Ecosystem Interview with Rob Dautel Senior Manager, Ecosystem at Renesas
The Renesas Ecosystem is an all-encompassing online resource for embedded engineers. The Ecosystem has hundreds of Alliance partners and specialized programs that enable designers to achieve a faster time to market. The idea for the Ecosystem spawned from the need to establish forums and community support to be able to collaborate and share ideas among the engineering community. We spoke with Rob Dautel, the Senior Manager of the Renesas Ecosystem, about how Renesas’ starter kits and development tools play a big role in the Ecosystem, some of the development partners that comprise their alliance program, and how he sees the program impacting the industry.
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“Our Alliance partner network has hundreds and hundreds of partners around the globe across all disciplines. There truly is something for everyone there.”
Can you give us a quick introduction about the Ecosystem and your role in the formation of this program? It’s big. Surprisingly big. We’ve built out the Renesas Ecosystem over many years, a few programs at a time. I use the experience from my hardware and software design days to think of what I would need and want from a supplier’s ecosystem and work to bring those services to light. It’s been a great team effort to create the well rounded ecosystem we now have. Starting with RenesasInteractive.com for eLearning over 10 years ago, we now have a robust Alliance partner network, an online tech community, a University program, videos, books, demo kits, and more. In all, more than 30 individual programs and services make up the Renesas Ecosystem today, and that number is increasing as we continually grow and refine the offering. In addition, each program and service is shaped to support an engineer across the key points of the design cycle from research to production and beyond. There are resources for finding and learning about MCU specifics, technology, and code, such as RenesasInteractive, our eLearning site and
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our Developers’ Conference, called DevCon, and its related onsite and regional events called DevCon Extension or DEX, as well as a range of videos on our RenesasPresents YouTube page and app notes and code found on Renesas.com. Engineers can obtain samples, kits, books, tools, and more through our sample site, BuyRenesas.com eStore, and various ecosystem services. It’s not only the number of offerings we have, but the depth of each as well. Our Alliance partner network, for example, has hundreds and hundreds of partners around the globe across all disciplines. There truly is something for everyone there.
Can you talk more about how your university programs and tools seem to come together in one great effort? Our university program is now on our fourth book. These books focus on our RX and RL78 series of microcontrollers and collectively form a learning path for 16- and 32-bit MCU systems. While written for colleges and universities, with materials to support 200 to 600 level classes, we’ve found these to be great reference books for practicing engineers as well. We’ve also
COVER INTERVIEW worked with Micrium to create several books based on our joint products. These are nice for learning not only about Renesas MCUs, but how RTOS and software stacks work too. Rounding out our education program is our involvement with Dean Kamen’s FIRST robotics foundation. I had the privilege of meeting Dean while preparing for our 2012 DevCon where he was a keynote speaker. His passion for encouraging kids to be involved in technology is unsurpassed, and the mission and goals of FIRST to encourage STEM learning through friendly competition aligns with Renesas’ own community values. I would encourage everyone to get involved with FIRST. They are an amazing group working with equally amazing kids.
Let’s talk about starter kits, development tools, and partners. In what ways are your partners an important part of your Ecosystem? For development kits, we have the Renesas Starter Kit (RSK), which is a product that comes from our corporate office in Japan. Most of our microcontrollers have an RSK associated with them. With the RSK, you get basic peripherals like buttons, LEDs, LCD, and a Pot, but we leave most of the I/O open and accessible since the idea of the RSK is to provide a platform for prototyping and debugging your design.
With these kits, we have also adopted Digilent’s Pmod™ standard and there are dozens of modules from different companies out there that support this standard. The Pmod™ interface lets a designer plug in and expand an evaluation as their needs grow beyond the stuff we’ve already packed onto the boards. We’ve seen partners like Intersil, Micron, and Analog Devices take advantage of this, creating Pmod™ that feature their products and work with ours. Our RDK program has been a great success and a testament to the power of partnership. We couldn’t have done it without our incredible Alliance partners. Working across our Alliance network, we’ve aligned with over 30 partner companies including RTOS and stacks, tools, software, cloud service vendors, semiconductor and component manufacturers. Each brings their best to the table, allowing us to offer a wide range of demonstrations, ideas, evaluations, and solutions in a single package. Through this huge collaborative effort, we enhance our total ecosystem and strengthen each other’s offerings with a common point of reference. The partners are great to work with and eager
Now while RSKs are great for prototyping, they don’t lend themselves well to evaluation. For this reason, we have the Renesas Demonstration Kits, or RDKs as we call them. An RDK is loaded with “goodies” on the board like accelerometers, temp sensors, serial memory, a matrix LCD, Ethernet or WiFi, USB, LEDs, audio I/O, and tons more. By including the “kitchen sink” so to speak, we enable the evaluating engineer to spend more time reviewing the hardware, tools, and available software instead of burning time connecting external components and writing eval code. Our counterparts at Renesas Europe have also created a kit we use here in the Americas called the Renesas Promotion Board or RPBs. These kits are something in between an RSK and an RDK. They are smaller, have great demos and eval software, but don’t have all the bells and whistles of an RDK. RPBs are another nice path for an engineer needing a quick eval.
Renesas Demonstration Kit (RDK)
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over the years with the books I mentioned earlier, involvement with DevCon, and overall support of Renesas MCUs.
“ Through this huge collaborative effort, we enhance our total ecosystem and strengthen each other’s offerings with a common point of reference.”
to support customers. The RDK is an ever expanding program offering more and more solution possibilities for our customers. I’ve got to admit, I love this program, and I’ve managed to snag a few RDKs for my own personal use. These things are engineering candy.
Can you tell us about your RTOS development partners? Outside of the RDKs, we have a full Alliance partner program, which comprises some 300 partners in the Americas, and almost 1,000 worldwide. These are partners from all different areas─hardware, software, design houses, programming and manufacturing facilities, cloud services, and components. As part of that network, we have a number of RTOS partners we work closely with. One quite often in the spotlight is Micrium. In the Power Of Two promotion that we have going, we continue to work with Micrium, and they have been a strong Platinum partner for us
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We have other great RTOS relationships too. SEGGER, for instance, whose J-Link tools support Renesas products, have their own full featured RTOS and stacks for the RX, RL78, and other Renesas MCU product lines. Express Logic and CMX have been long time supporters of Renesas MCUs with their excellent offerings. RoweBots provides a Posix compliant solution with their products and FreeRTOS supports a wide range of our MCUs. The list just goes on and on. I know there are others I’m forgetting, but overall, I think we’ve got a pretty complete offering when it comes to RTOS.
What is Renesas EDGE? Renesas EDGE is a global monthly publication created out of our Japan HQ. Each month, EDGE brings interesting articles, news, and tidbits about Renesas, our partners, technology, events, and industry views. It’s a nicely done magazine, and Renesas America is working with the EDGE team to provide content that may be of interest to our American market and customers. We’re always on the lookout for exciting stuff too. If you happen to be a Renesas customer or partner who’d like to share something you’re doing with the world, please reach out.
How does buyrenesas.com work with your key distributors? We work with the major distributors: Avnet, Arrow, Future, and Digi-Key. I don’t consider BuyRenesas.com as a channel to compete with our distributors. What we are focusing on with the e-store are the special promotions and hot products. The current kits and parts that people really want are found on the e-store. You can buy in low quantities for small builds, prototyping, kits, or whatever your need might be. However, when you start to get into any kind of volume, a Renesas distributor is the way to go. BuyRenesas pricing is good for small buys, but you’ll want to work with a distributor as the volume increases. Their pricing will be better for volume, and with a distributor, you get the support channels and other services they offer too. The e-store is a work in progress, and we are making enhancements which will add in some of our partner tools and products.
COVER INTERVIEW This will give us more flexibility with the store in the future, but it’s never intended to replace the great distys we work with.
What do you envision the Ecosystem doing for the industry, and how do you plan on expanding it? We used to market and promote individual programs for our Ecosystem. Now, we’re looking at the Ecosystem as a more holistic approach. It’s no longer a hyper hardware focused world. Don’t get me wrong, hardware is still a critical design step, but the times a designer opens up an MCU’s programming manual to read about the CPU’s address modes are becoming rarer. We all know modern microcontrollers are complex with loads of peripherals and mind boggling processing power compared to the units some of us grew up on. With these abilities, we’re seeing a convergence of technologies and disciplines. Object- oriented software and hardware at the embedded level. Scripting languages can now be facilitated, and software designers who are not traditional embedded programmers are now exploring the embedded space. MCUs have become ubiquitous and the focus has become enablement and providing solutions, or at least jumping off points for solutions and applications. This is where the ecosystem has become key. It allows for this level of enablement and solutions. I’ve got a saying I’m using in our Ecosystem marketing, “Indulge Your MCyou,” which means two different things. First is that the MCU is the heart of your design. It’s the microcontroller or microprocessor that enables your design. Our Ecosystem helps you get there. We’ve got the partners to provide support─software vendors, tools, stacks, RTOS, GUI, security, design, and many others--a lot of things to really help indulge your MCU as the core of your design. The other meaning is the MCyou being you, the engineer. At the end of the day, silicon is just that; a piece of silicon, and you’re the person putting the intelligence behind the design. You need the support mechanism as well as your microcontroller in order to accomplish the task. Our videos can provide you an overview on something, perhaps tips and tricks and how to get there. Maybe you want collaborative information with our forums, or maybe it is an RDK kit or an e-learning course. There are a lot
of things that we’ve put into the Ecosystem to enable “you” as the designer as well as “you” with the microcontroller. That is the kind of work we’re doing with the Ecosystem, enablement. With the new Ecosystem page we’re launching, we are aiming to have a little slider on the page so that you’ll be able to easily move back and forth to locate the desired information, because we also realize as part of this Ecosystem, there’s a lot of stuff there. With so much to the Renesas Ecosystem, it is easy to get overwhelmed. To assist finding the programs or services you need, we’ve created a selector tool on our Ecosystem webpage. The selector has a timeline on it that you, the engineer, can adjust. As you go through a typical design, you’ll have nine common points: research, evaluation, design, prototype, production, etc. As you move the selector to each one of the phases in your design, the tool is going to show you which of our programs are most appropriate for that point in your design cycle. We hope by doing this, it will allow you to navigate through the nuances of our Ecosystem more quickly to find what you need. Regarding the Renesas Ecosystem, I’d be remiss if I didn’t make a note of the fact that all of this isn’t just my doing. It’s a huge collaborative effort with the Renesas team across marketing, engineering, sales, and many behind-thescene groups. We work on both local and global levels to drive the Ecosystem programs forward, and I have the fortune of working with some great individuals in Europe, Japan, Singapore, and other regions of the world, including here at Renesas America. For me, it’s an exciting time to be here growing the Ecosystem and expanding into new services and offerings. My hope is designers of all kinds can take advantage of what we have, and I know there’s always more so I welcome input for our users. ■
Continue reading to find out more about the Renesas Ecosystem
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RENESAS ALLIANCE PARTNERS
The Renesas Alliance Program is a worldwide initiative which establishes and cultivates relationships with third-party design, manufacturing, software, tool, and component companies in order to support and enhance Renesas products. Through harnessing and building on the core competencies and skills of these exceptional third-party organizations, Renesas offers a comprehensive network of support to our customers: RTOS, stacks, middleware, application and cloud solutions. Design services for hardware and software from one time only to full turn-key are possible. Hardware and software tools to support the most challenging of designs, and a breadth of component manufacturers working with Renesas on reference designs, drivers, and evaluation code to jump start your design.
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In today’s market, it’s who you are and what you do. The name of the game is synergistic collaboration and a systems-thinking approach to customer business. This delivers the reduction in risk, time to market, and total system cost which is the trifecta for every design. The Renesas Alliance Partner program, with three tiers of partner identification, plus auto and global specific partners, is here to support you in your quest to be the best. You can find the Renesas Alliance partners at: www.renesas.com/alliance
FEATURED ARTICLE
RENESAS PRESENTS
Tips, hints, overviews, interviews, high level, or deep dive. Sometimes you feel like watching a little TV. RenesasPresents, the official Renesas YouTube channel, features more than 500 videos across the spectrum. You’ll find great info on Renesas MCUs, MPUs, Analog and Power, and various technologies for most any segment. You’ll also find some great content from our Alliance partners regarding solutions and services that support and enhance the Renesas offering and ecosystem.
Stop by now for your viewing pleasure: www.youtube.com/RenesasPresents
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RENESAS RULZ
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Engineers, Alliance “Partners, and Renesas
users across the globe form a community to share ideas, get help, and interact with peers.
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Stuck on a design project challenge, having trouble with a piece of code, or just feel like talking? RenesasRulz answers this call as the online community and gathering place for special interests, information, and those who use Renesas products and technologies. Engineers, Alliance Partners, and Renesas users across the globe form a community to share ideas, get help, and interact with peers. To keep the conversations moving along, we have active moderators cruising the forums to ensure questions get answered and discussions stay on topic and professional. You’ll also find a wealth of downloadable information available from product and design info to code samples and even partner app notes. Plus, RenesasRulz is home to some great hacks and DIY projects in our “Gadget Renesas” space, which is an Arduino compatible board using a 32-bit, 100MHz RX MCU. Talk about blowing the doors off your typical Arduino design.
Join the discussion at www.RenesasRulz.com
FEATURED ARTICLE
DEMONSTRATION KITS
To ease the difficulty engineers experience when evaluating hardware and software options, Renesas created the Renesas Demonstration Kits, or RDKs for short. The RDK is a “Kitchen sink� of parts, including a display from Okaya, temp sensor and 3-axis accelerometer from Analog Devices, WiFi from GainSpan on some RDKs, high-speed Micron Flash on others, and many other components from our Alliance partners. With so many components connected to an MCU and ready to go with code, evaluation becomes easier as there is no need to source and connect parts and write hours of example and test code. Verification that the board is running out of the box is easy with a Quickstart Guide covering various tools including IAR, GNU, and Renesas. Debug support is easy with an onboard Debugger from SEGGER, plus support for Total Phase products.
A vast array of projects from Renesas and third-party Alliance partners let the engineer or designer test drive a range of ideas and possible solutions. Ethernet, USB, WiFi, Cloud connectivity, RTOS and stacks, motor control, audio, and sensor I/O are just a few of the myriad of examples and demo code available for the RDKs, once again reducing time to market through the quick ability to evaluate hardware and software in a pre-connected, working environment. See the action at: www.renesas.com/rdk
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The Renesas Developer’s Conference, or DevCon, is a great event to learn about a wide range of technologies and products from Renesas and our Alliance partners. Featuring more than 100 sessions over a range of tracks, plus exhibits from over 100 partners, DevCon is a one-stop shop for engineers to spend their time to see what hot’s, gain knowledge on emerging technologies, and take home valuable insights on how to work with many software and hardware solutions. For those who miss DevCon in person, Renesas takes the seminars on the road with programs such as DevCon Extension. These faceto-face meetings with expert technologists let you acquire the latest technology information and get immediate answers to questions on specific issues and concerns.
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Renesas Electronics and our technology partners are currently on the move again with exciting new products and solutions. The DevCon Extension 2014 tour builds on our industry-leading Developers’ Conferences–giving you convenient access to powerful short courses and hands-on lab sessions that provide the updated solutions you need to develop enhanced products in less time. Multiple curriculum tracks are available, each of which focuses on specific, highly effective hardware/software approaches that you can use to give your new products important market advantages. Please make plans to join us! http://am.renesas.com/DEX
FEATURED ARTICLE
SAMPLE PROGRAM site’s simple “ The and clean interface
provides a quick method to navigate through more than 290 MCUs.
“
Samples are a key point in most any design and, with the Renesas sample site, you get a faster, easier way to receive product samples for evaluation. The site’s simple and clean interface provides a quick method to navigate through more than 290 MCUs, including the flagship products RX and RL78, 60 LPSRAM and 40 EEPROMS. Using the site, users can order samples and have them shipped as quickly as the next day with just one click. Accessing the sample site is simple. Just go to http://www.renesassamples.com, select the desired part, register (first time only), and complete the request.
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SAMPLE CODE
Thousands of code samples wait to help you along the path in your design. Drivers, middleware, peripheral setup, system startup, and other examples are available at our Software Center. Renesas also offers several code generators and sample applications for motor control, audio playback, DSP support, file systems, flash drivers, OS integration, and much more. Use the code search engine to quickly narrow down and find the pieces you need.
You can find the Renesas Software Center at www.Renesas.com/software
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FEATURED ARTICLE
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
Like any craftsman, a designer needs quality tools for creating their masterpiece. Compilers, code generators, debuggers, simulation tools, coverage tools, and more align with hardware debuggers, programmers, sniffers, and a range of development boards in a comprehensive offering of hardware and software tools from Renesas and many of our third-party partners. Working closely with our partners, we strive to offer tools with high levels of integration, which are easy to use and allow the user to quickly gain proficiency.
Visit the Renesas tools page at www.Renesas.com/tools
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EDA SYMBOLS
To aide in getting your design off the ground quickly, Renesas offers EDA symbols for many of its popular products. Download schematic symbols and PCB footprints in a vendor neutral format called a BXL file. Then use the Ultra-Librarian Reader from Accelerated Designs, which Renesas provides as a free download, to quickly export symbols into a number of popular EDA tool formats including: Schematic
Footprint
ACCEL EDA Altium Designer Altium PCAD Altium Protel Cadence Allegro DE HDL (Concept) Cadence Orcad Capture Cadsoft Eagle Mentor Design Architect Mentor Design Capture Mentor DxDesigner Mentor PowerLogic Target 3001 Zuken Cadstar
Altium Designer Altium PCAD Altium Protel AutoCad DXF Cadence Allegro Cadence Orcad Layout Cadence Orcad PCB Editor Cadsoft Eagle Mentor Boardstation Mentor Expedition Mentor PowerPCB (PADS) Target 3001 Zuken CadStar
Get your symbols now at www.RenesasRulz.com/edasym
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FEATURED ARTICLE
DOCTOR MICRO
The Doctor is in! Each week Dr. Micro brings exciting topics to light as he blogs on Renesas products, technology, partners and more in an easy to digest fashion. Within the Dr. Micro blog, you will find a plethora of information along with tips and tricks to make working with Renesas devices just that much easier. Got a question? A topic for discussion? The Dr. Micro blog is here to serve. Stop by and post your comments, suggestion, and topics for discussion.
A topic for discussion? “GotThea question? Dr. Micro blog is here to serve.
“
Dr. Micro is on the case, ready and willing to help! www.RenesasRulz.com/doctor_micro
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BUY RENESAS
Convenient parametric selectors help you locate your product with ease. If you’re having difficulty finding or ordering what you need on BuyRenesas, it’s not a problem. Live online chat is a click away, and our operators are standing by to assist.
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is the “BuyRenesas.com Renesas online store for customers in the Americas who know what they want and don’t want to waste time getting it.
“
When you’re evaluating a new device, need a dev kit for the latest hot product, or just want to buy something at 3 am; BuyRenesas. com is the Renesas online store for customers in the Americas who know what they want and don’t want to waste time getting it. BuyRenesas delivers easy and convenient access to the latest and the hottest Renesas RX and RL78 MCUs and their tools. Some 300 of our most popular products are ready and waiting for your perusal.
Of course, sometimes your needs are based in legacy, volume, or human contact. When these needs arise, you can find all of the fine Renesas distributors and reps at our buy page: http://am.renesas.com/buy/
FEATURED ARTICLE
RENESAS INTERACTIVE
→ →
In our fast paced world, technology changes daily, and the ability for engineers and designers to keep up is paramount. For this, Renesas brings you RenesasInteractive, a self-paced eLearning environment featuring hundreds of courses on Renesas microcontrollers, tools, solutions, technologies, and more. Using RenesasInteractive allows you access to quick knowledge in an easy to digest manner. Dive deep to learn about an MCU’s peripherals, skim an overview course to research a product’s features, or brush up on motor control, USB, or a range of other technologies. RenesasInteractive lets you learn your way, from any place and any time.
INTERACTIVE Stop by today and check it out! www.RenesasInteractive.com
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KNOWLEDGE Information and knowledge have always been prime drivers of success, and in today’s world, it is equally about the speed with which we can access, understand and use that information. Renesas provides several sources for mass information to learn about products and technologies, find helpful tips and hints, and gain valuable insight regarding Renesas’ environmental, quality, and reliability data.
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Books
In collaboration with key partners and top educators in engineering and embedded systems, Renesas proudly offers a library of high-quality reference and textbooks, forming a comprehensive reference base for engineers and students alike. www.renesas.com/support/books/
FAQs and Knowledgebase
Our database of over 4,000 questions and answers grows daily. Technical and non-technical information on Renesas products and services are waiting for you at: www.renesas.com/faq and https://knowledgebase.am.renesas.com/
Environmental Info
Supplying the important data designers need to ensure compliance with many build and fabrication standards. Renesas environmental data can be found here: www.renesas.com/products/lead/index.jsp?campaign=gn_supp
Quality and Reliability Info
Product reliability, supply specifications, and related documentation deliver peace of mind for your design—today, tomorrow, long term. Find it all at: www.renesas.com/products/common_info/reliability/
Product Longevity Program (PLP)
In response to market needs, Renesas has introduced the Product Longevity Program (PLP). Offering 10 to 20 years of consistent supply for mainly Automotive, Industrial and Medical market segments in which long product life is generally required for most of the applications. Find out more at: www.renesas.com/support/plp/
FEATURED ARTICLE
RENESAS UNIVERSITY
goal for Renesas “It istoamake the study
and teaching of MCU technology accessible to the educators of today and engineers of tomorrow.
“
Today our world turns by the power of technology and electronics. The field of engineering is universal and, by its very nature, constantly inventing and evolving. Embedded systems and the microcontrollers that run them are the heartbeat. It is a goal for Renesas to make the study and teaching of MCU technology accessible to the educators of today and engineers of tomorrow. Partnering with universities and professionals to develop the Renesas University Program, materials are created, tested and honed in live classroom environments. The Renesas University Program has a customizable dual-path structure, which can be adopted entirely or in part to augment an existing curriculum. A comprehensive suite of resources complete the package, including textbooks, classroom materials, and development boards rounded out with moderated web forums and live support.
Learn more about RenesasUniversity at www.RenesasUniversity.com
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SOCIAL
Staying connected means staying up to date with the latest in products, technology, and services Renesas and the Renesas Ecosystem has to offer. Renesas provides a range of avenues to keep you abreast with the latest news and information from Renesas and our partners. Stay in touch and get social with the following programs: Renesas EDGE – A periodic magazine produced by Renesas featuring news, information, and updates. www.renesas.com/edge MyRenesas – Subscribe to receive the latest product information and alerts on new and updated documents (catalogs, datasheets, manuals...), as well as technical updates and notices about Renesas events and seminars, by e-mail. www.renesas.com/myrenesas/ The Echo – Sharing the thoughts, happenings, and updates of the Renesas Ecosystem and our Alliance partners, The Echo is a periodic newsletter filled with interesting views, technology commentary, helpful information, and thought provoking discussion. Find The Echo at www.renesas.com/ecosystem Facebook & Twitter – Follow Renesas on both Facebook and Twitter. https://www.facebook.com/RenesasAmerica https://twitter.com/RenesasAmerica
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FEATURED ARTICLE
FIRST
(For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technlology
Renesas is dedicated to working with FIRST® (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science & Technology) to motivate and inspire the next generation of engineers, who will help to further develop innovation and technological advancements in a Smart Society. Renesas considers our social duty as a corporate leader in the community to give back and encourage today’s students to be everything they can be regardless of their socioeconomic background and to promote a future of a harmonious and prosperous Smart Society. We at Renesas believe in the principals and work FIRST is doing to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education in today’s students through a safe, exciting,
and nurturing atmosphere, which encourages the growth and development of leadership in tomorrow’s engineers and creators of the Smart Society.
As part of a multi-level sponsorship of FIRST, Renesas employees work with FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) teams around the country, serving as mentors and volunteers for the next generation of innovators. www.renesas.com/first
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TECH ARTICLE
In order to understand a field as broad as embedded systems, one must conquer the basics. With the way some courses at the university level are setup, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Computer Science majors can all register for the same course. It also turns out that many graduate level classes can be accessed by undergraduate students. So, finding the right balance of preliminary information can help streamline the learning process for all types of electrical/computer students.
Because all of the student’s backgrounds are rooted in engineering, choosing some basic building blocks will help lead the students in the right direction towards building and maintaining embedded systems. Curriculum directors have to take a look at embedded systems as a whole. Some questions they might ask include:
The types of students that enroll in embedded systems are pretty similar. They are mostly engineering students and they usually consist of electrical and computer engineers as well as computer scientists. When looking at the general background of students like electrical engineers, computer engineers, and computer scientists, it is easy to see that their strengths vary. Electrical engineering students have a lot of hardware design experience like constructing a transformer and designing advanced circuits. Computer engineering students are tasked with learning the architecture of computing systems, but dive into software development a lot more than electrical engineers. Computer scientists are strictly software developers and are interested in science behind computing as well as advancing the practices present in the software world. Keeping this information in mind, figuring out the most important aspects of embedded systems and choosing these elements as starter subjects is all in the task of a professor in this situation.
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Answers to these questions actually can bring a slew of new questions that must be answered in order to pinpoint the best way to approach as semester. This gives someone who is generating a curriculum even more details to work with. For example, after answering what types of embedded systems there are, the professor might want to focus on medical embedded systems vs. home embedded systems. These options actually determine whether or not the developer choses a RealTime Operating System or a General Purpose Operating System. Another key question to spawn other questions would the selection of type of data processor. The coding style used is dictated by the selection of a data processor. C and Java files can run on all data processors but a hardware description language (HDL) is needed to program an FPGA and assembly language can be used to program a microcontroller. From all of this, which is the best way to help students learn the fundamentals of embedded systems?
Figure 1: Xilinx Zynq-7000 Architecture
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TECH ARTICLE
Figure 2: Comparison of Microcontroller (left) vs. a FPGA (right) Some of the main topics that emerge from all of this question asking are using an HDL, programming in C, the need of a development board usually between FPGA or a microcontroller, as well as using peripherals such as VGA, PS/2, and USB to control the development board. Now these topics are chosen because they are the most relevant to developing embedded systems. Using a HDL is very important as it can help ease electrical engineering students into programming and will help the other engineers relate to electrical engineering. Programming in C is a huge tool that should be learned prior to a high level embedded class. But, in many other classes that introduce the topic, most don’t go into serious detail. Programming embedded systems will force students to understand how the programming structure and the file structure all work with each other. Many embedded systems will not be using a Linux based operating system
and being able to learn and understand such a powerful programming language will benefit the student greatly. In order to actually have an embedded system, it is required that development is done on a computer board of some sort. This choice, however, is not as important as the rest. With the way most computer chips can be programmed, as well as the type of peripherals that can be added, it is just as easy to program an FPGA as it would be to program a microcontroller. If a microcontroller has been chosen by other classes, then the students should learn how to use an FPGA and vice versa. Along with the choice of development boards, peripherals are somewhat of a non-factor. It is important to understand the aspects that make up input and output devices, but which devices are chosen does not make as much of a difference. In most cases it can be a safe bet to include a visual output and a PS/2 or USB input. This will help the student
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program the board as well as see the results on screen. With all of these requirements, it can be difficult to find a board that can satisfy both the teaching needs of professors and the learning needs of students. Fortunately, for professors and faculty in the university setting, there are a few programs that are available that are pre-defined with the knowledge we are looking for. Several microcontroller and FPGA developers have learning programs that help potential users learn how to use the developer’s microchips. FPGA and microcontroller companies such as Altera, Xilinx, PIC, and Parallax all have created a lesson plan to help new subjects learn how to use the product of their choice. Even Single board computers Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, and Omilex have their own getting started pages along with sample projects. Although these training exercises are not as in-depth as the FPGA and microcontroller training systems, they can still help new users develop significant projects. But, it doesn’t seem reasonable to teach a class without some homework, labs or testing procedures. This eliminates the possibility to use a single board computer as a learning
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source. Unless a lesson plan is pre-determined, it would take a decent amount of time to formulate a class centering around a Raspberry Pi or a BeagleBoard. These also leave out important learning features involving HDL’s, certain peripherals, and programming options. It also doesn’t appear that much of the industry builds their products using single board computers. Excluding these options, it seems like an FPGA or microcontroller would be the best platform to build a class around. Companies like Altera and Microchip (PIC) have “university” or “classroom” exercises that help students learn the fundamentals of embedded systems. With exercises in VHDL, Verilog, and C programming, using IDE’s to program development boards, and ways to utilize peripherals, classes built around FPGA’s and microcontrollers will help students learn the crucial aspects of designing, developing and testing of embedded systems. ■
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