On August 2, 2022, Renesas Electronics announced the launch of the RX660 microcontroller (MCU) product group, a new member of the RX 32-bit MCU product family. The new products support 5V operating voltage and provide excellent noise margin for household appliances and industrial equipment exposed to high electromagnetic interference. The RX660 is the first device in Renesas‘ high-end RX general-purpose MCU products to support 5V, and the first device in the RX product family with a built-in CAN FD controller, enabling high-speed data communication. The high operating voltage of the new RX660 MCUs eliminates the need for external noise suppression components required by many current 3V MCUs, allowing users to reduce development time and component costs and improve system quality.

In recent years, software has grown in size as functional safety and cybersecurity become key components of electronic systems. As more product models emerge, more and more products use real-time operating systems to simplify software maintenance. In addition, product designs need to be compatible with over-the-air (OTA) updates for future enhancements. To meet these needs, Renesas developed the RX660. The product uses the RXv3 core (6.00 CoreMark/MHz) with a maximum operating frequency of 120MHz, providing high performance and excellent power efficiency. These devices feature high-capacity Flash capacities of up to 1 megabyte (MB) and RAM up to 128 kilobytes (KB), and are available in a variety of package options (48-pin to 144-pin). In particular, the effective pin count of general-purpose I/O pins is 10% higher than that of earlier RX210 products that support 5V operating voltage. For example, the 144-pin version of the RX660 has an effective pin count of 134, 11 more than the RX210. As the number of I/Os increases, more sensors can be connected to the MCU in a specific package, making it easier to upgrade existing systems.

"Since electromagnetic waves in the surrounding environment can cause system failure or performance degradation, noise suppression is critical for home appliances and industrial products," said Eiji Ito, vice president of the IoT Platform Business Unit at Renesas Electronics. In order to meet the strong demand, Renesas introduced the new RX660 MCU. We are very excited to help users simplify the product design process.”

Eisuke Yamada, Head of the Purchasing Strategy Department, Global Purchasing Department, Daikin Industries, Ltd. said, "Daikin has used Renesas RX MCU products in its main air conditioner products for more than 10 years, and we are looking forward to the new model with excellent noise tolerance. RX660 MCUs. RX MCUs offer superior CPU performance and flash memory for improved real-time performance and expandable development with pin-compatible devices. We believe these are integral to MCU products.”

First RX MCU to support CAN FD

CAN is gaining popularity in industrial equipment and robotics, but due to the use of a large number of sensors, increasing data traffic results in insufficient bandwidth, requiring multiple buses and incurring higher costs. The RX660 is the first MCU in the RX product family to integrate a CAN FD controller that supports fast, high-capacity data transmission. Among them, CAN FD allows a large number of safety signals to be transmitted in a single frame, allowing stronger safety to be built into the device.

Two development boards are available

The RX660 product group has two development boards available for prototyping and detailed evaluation. The RX660 target board serves as an inexpensive prototyping board that allows users to easily translate their ideas into usable hardware and software. The Renesas Starter Kit for RX660 is used for detailed evaluation, enabling users to take full advantage of the full capabilities of the RX660 when developing applications.