Renesas Unveils Innovative SH72546RFCC Microcontroller

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Renesas Technology America has announced the addition of a new microcontroller in the 32-bit SuperH family: the SH72546RFCC, the industry's first MCU with on-chip flash memory built with a 90-nm process node. The device is optimized for the development of control programs for automobile engines, transmissions, and other systems that require real-time control capabilities. It achieves an industry top-level operating speed of 200MHz in the high-temperature environment (up to 125˚C) required for automotive applications. In addition, the device's on-chip flash memory capacity is among the largest currently offered — 3.75 Mbytes — enough to store cutting-edge high-precision real-time control algorithms.

The SH72546RFCC (FCC = flash on-chip calibration chip) device is a preproduction device optimized for control program development, offering a set of features tailored to aid software design and debug. It forms the basis for an upcoming mass-production product family that will have performance, package, and pin arrangement compatibility. Engineers performing system development using the SH72546RFCC will be able to make a speedy and seamless transition to lower-cost mass production devices.

The fast, 200MHz, 32-bit SH-2A CPU core of the SH72546RFCC is an enhanced superscalar design with a built-in double precision floating point unit that delivers about four times the performance of the 80MHz Renesas SH-2E (SH-2 and single precision FPU) core used in the powertrain systems of many of today's vehicles. A cache unit allows single-cycle access to the large on-chip flash memory at 200MHz for high-speed application processing.

The comprehensive on-chip peripheral functions that the MCU provides for real-time engine and transmission control applications include a multifunction timer unit (ATU-III: advanced timer unit III) with up to 106 outputs, a high-speed 37-channel 12-bit A/D converter, CAN (controller area network) interface, and an SPI (serial peripheral interface). To improve program development efficiency, the SH72546RFCC device has a large-capacity on-chip emulation RAM that is separate from the user RAM. This RAM overlaps the flash memory area, and allows real-time adjustment of application program control parameters while data is rewritten as desired during microcontroller operation. There are also debugging functions such as an AUD (advanced user debugger).

Available system development tools include the USB bus-powered E10A-USB on-chip debugging emulator that requires no external power supply, and the E200F full-spec emulator. Renesas also offers the High-performance Embedded Workshop integrated development environment with compiler, assembler, and linker products.

Plans for mass-production specification products, without the SH72546RFCC's debugging functions (emulation RAM, etc.), include products with extended on-chip flash memory and RAM capacities, and low-pin-count products.

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