Mediaboss Marketing

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Renesas Electronics America, a leading provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the availability of 12 new microcontrollers (MCUs) in the high-performance RX631 Group. The new devices bring the outstanding 1.65 Dhrystone MIPS (DMips) performance and advanced connectivity features of the RX631 MCUs in smaller 64- and 48-pin packages with smaller flash memory footprints of 256KB, 384KB and 512KB to serve cost and space constrained applications.

Pin-to-pin and software compatible with others in the RX631 MCU Group, the new devices provide true single-chip solutions for demanding industrial applications such as building and factory automation, medical monitoring and therapy equipment, security and fire alarm systems, climate control, home appliances, communication gateways and point-of-sale devices. Moreover, thanks to the lower pin count and memory footprint, the new MCUs are also now suited to address consumer application like in gaming, PC peripherals, fitness and consumer medical application.

We are seeing increased demand for solutions that will enable people to interact with their electronics devices more efficiently and conveniently whether at home or at work, said Ritesh Tyagi, senior director, MCU Products, Renesas Electronics America. By combining the high performance 165 DMIPS at 100 MHz operation of RX with built-in anti temper feature and USB connectivity in a small, inexpensive package, we can enable RX631 MCUs for a whole new range of consumer and industrial applications.

The 32-bit RX central processing unit uses an enhanced Harvard architecture with separate instruction and operand busses going to both Flash and SRAM enabling simultaneous instruction fetch and memory writes which boosts performance and is ideal for bandwidth intensive applications such as digital signal processing. Instructions are fed into the CPU from 100MHz Flash and are processed by a 5-stage execution pipeline enabling single clock operations. The CPU also integrates a single precision 32-bit floating point unit, which performs complex non-linear math in fewer clock cycles, reduces code and data size, and simplifies code development. The multiply accumulate unit enables efficient digital signal processing. The RX register set consists of nine control registers, sixteen 32-bit general purpose registers, and a 48-bit accumulator register. There is a memory protection unit. The interrupt control unit enables ultra fast 5-cycle interrupt latency.

Advanced Features

The new MCUs in the RX631 Group are equipped with one channel of USB 2.0 full-speed (Host, device and OTG) and one CAN channel. The products are offered with a rich set of communication, timer and analog peripherals including up to 12 A/D channels, a 10bit DAC and a real-time clock (RTC), which has a separate Vbat pin and built-in anti-tamper detection. In a 64-pin LQFP package, the RX631 provides a remarkable number of timers with the six-channel advanced MTU2, the six-channel TPU, the four-channel CMT, the four-channel TMR, dual watchdog timers, WDT and IWDT. It also features numerous serial communication channels, USB, CAN, six SCI, two SPI, and one I2C. Four channels of DMA and a Data Transfer Controller make it easy to handle transfers with peripherals and make sure that the CPU is used efficiently.

Many functional enhancements serve to reduce system cost and power consumption, and increase system capabilities, including a pin for connection to an alternate voltage source (coin cell or super cap) to automatically power the RTC and a tamper-detection system within the RTC to time stamp an intrusion event from three independent sources. The RX631 devices also feature several integrated elements including an on-chip temperature sensor, on-chip 50MHz oscillator to boot up a system at high speed, on-chip voltage reference for the analog to digital converters, and on-chip data flash with up to 100K erase cycles and fine write/erase granularity at just 2-byte write and 32-byte erase to eliminate the need for an external EEPROM device.

Development Tools and Ecosystem Support

Since the rollout of the RX MCU family in 2009, Renesas Electronics has been steadily introducing new devices, features, tools and partnerships to expand the capabilities of the MCUs. Renesas Electronics supports the RX600 MCUs with a comprehensive hardware/software tool set from the company and third parties. Renesas Electronics offers the popular High-Performance Embedded Workshop (HEW) integrated development environment (IDE), which includes the RX-optimizing C/C++ compiler with integrated support for the low-cost E1 JTAG on-chip debugging tool, as well as the comprehensive E20 high-speed trace on-chip debugging tool.

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Renesas Electronics Packs RX Punch into a Smaller Package to Support Cost-Sensitive Industrial and Consumer Applications

FaceTime conversations always commence with "left a bit, no, up a bit, no no, that's too far..." as we balance our iOS handsets to find a flattering angle. Gorillapod designers Josh Guyot and JoeBen Bevirt want to put an end to it with Galileo, a 360 degree motorized remote-control base for your iPhone or iPod Touch. If your buddy moves out of frame, just swipe in their direction and it'll pan around to follow. Designed as a video conferencing tool, it would also be useful as a baby monitor, remote camera or for clever photography projects. You'll also find a universal 1/4" tripod mount screw, rechargeable lithium polymer battery and it'll double as a dock when not in use. The project has currently reached $10,093 of its $100,000 goal, with the pre-order price of one of the units pegged at $85. If you'd care to see it in action, we'd suggest taking a trip downtown past the break.

[Thanks, Max]

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Insert Coin: Galileo, the remote control camera from the men behind the Gorillapod

MARC HINTON

OPINION: It's to be hoped that Jerome Kaino departs New Zealand rugby for his two-year deal in Japan with cheers and not jeers ringing in his ears.

If ever a departing rugby star deserved a kind word and fond farewell it's Kaino who's been a fabulous servant for the New Zealand game and deserves his chance to provide a bit of financial security for his family.

No one -- with the possible exception of Richie McCaw -- has put his body on the line for the cause to the extent of this likeable 28-year-old.

He played all but one minute of last year's World Cup, and was the All Blacks' most consistent performer throughout the tournament. For that alone he has earned his pension in Japan where the workload, demands and attrition will be a fraction of what he faces in New Zealand.

This, I'm told, was a deal that Kaino could simply not turn down.

There's talk it could have been around the $2 million mark and it's a sad reality that the cash-strapped NZRU, who have committed so much coin to retaining Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and for the time-being Sonny Bill Williams, have no hope of going close to matching that sort of deal.

In fact there are some whispers around the traps that the new contract offered by the New Zealand Rugby Union was not that flash. One well-placed observer reckoned Kaino may have even been offered less money than he was on previously to stay on.

Whatever, the decision was a no-brainer for Kaino.

For starters yet another major shoulder injury must raise concerns about the loose forward's ability to survive the demands of the modern professional game in New Zealand.

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Kaino deserves nothing but praise for decision

The idea of a lighted fretboard isn't a new one by any stretch (how do you think the Fretlight got its compound name?), but there's something to be said for not having to buy a brand new guitar for that functionality. The folks behind Tabber are working to make that a reality, having tested a number of prototypes for a product that you can simply slip over the neck of your axe for a quick tutorial. The company is looking to create a slicker version of the concept that it can bring to the market. Tabber's creators need your help to "transform the guitar industry," so naturally they've taken to Kickstarter, with a little under a month to hit their $45,000 goal. The Arduino-powered LED guitar instructor will connect to a mobile device via Bluetooth, accessing information to let you play along with songs, figure out chords and bend your fingers around some scales. Click the source link to send some cash Tabber's way, or to find out a bit more about the project.

Update: As a number of commenters have pointed out, there's a similar project currently awaiting your donations on Kickstarter. Great minds, huh?

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Insert Coin: Tabber lights up your fretboard, shows you the way to rock

AT ONLY 21, Callan Ward concedes he will feel a bit like an old man tomorrow night when he leads out the GWS Giants in their AFL debut against the Swans at ANZ Stadium.

With just 60 senior games on his resume at the Western Bulldogs, Ward is one of only five players with previous AFL experience named in the Giants team for its inaugural game, the remainder being 17 first-gamers, of which 14 are teenagers.

Apart from Ward, Kevin Sheedy's side will field veterans James McDonald (251 games) and Chad Cornes (239 games), as well as Rhys Palmer (53 games) and Phil Davis (18 games).

Of their debutants, nine are only 18, and another five are 19, with Tim Mohr (23), Jonathan Giles (24) and NRL recruit Israel Folau (22) the older first-timers.

''Yeah, I know it feels like it sometimes,'' Ward said when suggested he was the old man. ''It will be different, it will be extremely exciting though. They will bring the enthusiasm we need. Everyone is just pumped to play the game.

''There is a great feeling around the joint at the moment,'' he said comparing the build-up to that of the preliminary finals he played at the Bulldogs. ''Everyone can't wait to get out there and play. I'm a little bit, not a whole lot yet. I'm not really one to get nervous too early before a game. Usually on the drive to a game I'm a bit nervous but I think I probably have been a bit more nervous this week.''

Asked whether he or Davis will get the honour of tossing the coin for the first time, Ward replied: ''We haven't decided yet. It might have to be paper, scissors, rock. I'm not sure how we'll decide that.''

The Giants' average age is 20 years and eight months, and thanks to the 490 games between McDonald and Cornes, the average number of games is boosted to 28. And Ward and his co-captain Davis, will enter the top 10 youngest AFL captains list tomorrow night, Ward at No.9 (21 years 348 days) and Davis at No.3 (21 years and 206 days).

The 17 debutants equals the AFL record held by Adelaide, which fielded 17 in its first match in the AFL in 1991.

Wagga teenager Harry Cunningham is another making his AFL debut after being selected by the Swans for the clash.

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Debutants' ball: Sheedy's side to feature 17 first-gamers for inaugural clash