Renesas Electronics, a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the development of its new 4th-generation (X4 generation) V850 series of microcontrollers (MCUs) for automotive applications, consisting of four product series: the P-series for chassis and safety applications; D-series for dashboard applications; F-series for body applications; and S-series for car audio systems. Mass production is scheduled to begin in Q2 FY2011.
Renesas Electronics' 4th-generation MCU series is based on a 90 nanometer (nm) MONOS (metal-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon) flash technology and uses the 32-bit V850E2 CPU core which has an excellent performance ratio of 2.5 DMIPS/MHz (Dhrystone MIPS [million instructions per second] per megahertz), and capable of covering a performance range from 48MHz (120MIPS), 80MHz (200MIPS) up to 160MHz (400MIPS).
Each product series is scalable in memory sizes, peripherals, pin counts and performance, and thereby provides full software- and hardware-compatibility within each product series. In particular, software re-usability is assured across the four product series by maintaining the same register location for each peripheral.
Fully-verified AUTOSAR V3.0/3.1 MCAL software drivers are available for all 4th generation MCUs. Renesas Electronics' MCAL software drivers can be obtained as a stand alone software package or integrated in a complete basic software stack in cooperation with partner companies. To comply with the AUTOSAR requirements, new system protection functionality (SPF) has been implemented in the new X4-generation MCUs. The SPF includes a memory protection unit (MPU), a peripheral register protection unit (PPU), a system register protection (SRP) and a timing supervision unit (TSU) that monitors the execution time of the CPU.
The main functions of the 4th-generation V850 MCUs are as follows:
P-series: V850E2/Px4 MCU Family for functional safety applications
Renesas Electronics' new P-series has been developed for applications with the highest functional safety requirements (ASIL D/SIL3), such as electrical power steering, motor control for electric vehicles, hybrid cars, battery management, and integrated safety systems. The V850E2/Px4 portfolio includes nine MCUs with a built-in flash memory ranging from 384 kilobytes (KB) to 1 megabyte (MB) assembled in packages with 80- to 144-pins.
The P-series MCUs have highly efficient on-chip diagnostic capabilities, including a redundant CPU subsystem with a compare unit, built-in self tests for logic and memory, and an error check and correct (ECC) protection for all on-chip memory. These built-in diagnostic eliminate the need for additional monitoring software and/or monitoring MCU, thereby enabling significant reduction of the electronic control unit (ECU) development time and cost.
Compliance to functional safety standards IEC61508 and ISO26262 for the P-series MCUs has been analyzed in the course of several safety assessments conducted by TÜV SÜD to prove SIL 3 and ASIL D conformance.
D-series: V850E2/Dx4 MCU Family for dashboard applications
Renesas Electronics' new V850E2/Dx4 MCU family for dashboard applications includes 11 MCUs that meet the increasing trend of color TFT LCDs (thin-film transistor liquid-crystal displays) in the cockpit by enhancing traditional cluster control functions with highly sophisticated graphics features, such as drawing engines and on-chip video RAM.
The D-series MCUs help to significantly reduce system cost of color graphics dashboards. For hybrid cluster instruments that combine traditional gauges with color TFT up to WVGA all necessary functions are incorporated, such as gauge control, flash memory, video RAM up to 8 megabytes (MB), 2D drawing engines, display/timing controllers, and video capture. For virtual dashboards, the V850E2/DR4-3D MCU includes a 3D drawing engine, DDR 3 (double data rate 3) RAM interface with bandwidth up to 4.3 GB/s, and on-chip flash memory.
Being a successor of Renesas Electronics' market-proven V850E/Dx3 MCUs, the D-series MCUs offer high scalability with derivatives ranging from 256 kilobytes (KB) to 3MB of flash memory at CPU frequencies between 40MHz to 120MHz. For the dedicated V850E2/DR4-3D graphics device with up to 400MHz, the dashboard-specific intelligent peripherals significantly reduce CPU load and include functions such as an intelligent stepper motor unit, sound playback, and an LCD segment controller. Communication interfaces allow the use of information from various sources, for example via Flexray, MOST, or Ethernet.
F-series: V850E2/Fx4 MCU Family for Body Applications
Renesas Electronics developed the new series of V850E2/Fx4 MCUs, which includes 54 MCUs, for body applications to cover the extremely wide application range of the automotive comfort and body segment. Therefore, scalability and compatibility within the F-series MCUs, combined with the wide offering of sophisticated peripheral functionality, is the key asset of this product, providing premium solutions for applications such as roof or window lifters; door-, seat- and light modules; HVAC; BCMs (body control module); and high end Gateway.
As successor of the well-known V850ES/Fx3 MCUs, the V850E2/Fx4 MCUs incorporate CPU clocks ranging from 48MHz up to 160MHz, and flash memory from 256KB up to 4MB assembled in packages with pin counts ranging from 64 to 256. An enhanced peripheral set is implemented, including FlexRay, Ethernet, MOST, PWM generation/diagnosis, a voltage comparator with hysteresis, and a LIN master.
