Month: September 2021

Renesas Electronics Corporation, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, introduced the ultra-low power, 32-bit RX140 group of microcontrollers (MCUs), the latest addition to its entry-level RX100 Series. Built around Renesas’ powerful RXv2 CPU core, the RX140 MCUs deliver outstanding performance, with operation of up to 48 MHz with a CoreMark score of 204, equivalent to approximately twice the processing performance of the RX130 group.

The RX140 MCUs also boost power efficiency by over 30% compared with previous RX130 MCUs, achieving power consumption as low as 56 µA/MHz when the CPU is in active mode and as low as 0.25 µA in standby mode. This enables the RX140 MCUs to realise high performance and low power consumption in a wide range of products, such as home appliances, industrial and building automation (BA).

The RX140 MCUs feature the latest capacitive touch sensing units, offering customers an enhanced user experience (UX) and user interface (UI). The MCUs fulfill the IEC EN61000-4-3 level 4 (radiated) and EN61000-4-6 level 3 (conducted) capacitive touch noise tolerance requirements. This proves they are less susceptible to electromagnetic noise, allowing the MCUs to detect changes in water level by directly measuring changes in capacitance through high-precision sensing.

Built-in multi-scan functionality and automated sensing enable customers to improve sensitivity through simultaneous measurement using multiple electrodes. This allows for automatic touch detection even in standby mode, making it easier for customers to develop interfaces quickly and easily utilising touchless operation or proximity sensing. As part of Renesas’ RX capacitive touch MCU lineup, the RX140 MCUs allow customers to develop reliable, high-end capacitive touch systems for applications in a variety of environments.

These include home appliances such as microwave ovens, refrigerators, and induction heat cooking stoves, as well as manufacturing equipment, building control panels, and devices that can detect remaining quantities of water or powder on surfaces.

“The RX100 Series of ultra-low power MCUs is gaining popularity for the superior scalability it offers as the entry-level model for the RX Family,” says, Sakae Ito, vice president of the IoT platform business division at Renesas. “With the release of the RX140 MCUs offering improved performance and power efficiency alongside the latest capacitive touch IP, we continue to bring advanced solutions that enable customers to create products that combine enhanced functionality, design, and usability.”

The RX140 MCUs also features improved peripheral functions. For example, the number of I/O ports has been increased to allow control of more sensors or external components, and CAN communication support for real-time operation has been added. A built-in AES encryption accelerator and true random number generator (TRNG) reduce the risks of security threats such as data leakage or manipulation.

Designed for scalability, the new RX140 MCUs also maintain pin compatibility with the RX130, enabling customers to upgrade while continuing to make use of existing design resources.

Renesas also introduced the Target Board for RX140, which provides access to all signal pins, for initial evaluation work. The board is equipped with a Pmod connector to allow easy connection of sensor modules. To simplify evaluation of capacitive touch applications even further, Renesas plans to introduce the Capacitive Touch Evaluation System for RX140 (Note 1), which will be similar to the already available Capacitive Touch Evaluation System for RX130. Customers can use the new MCUs with the e2 studio integrated development environment, the Smart Configurator code generation support tool, and the QE for Capacitive Touch capacitive touch support tool to shorten development time, reduce the total cost, and improve software quality.

Renesas has created a solution for a complete Waterproof Shower Controller with RX140 MCUs and other complementary analog and power devices from Renesas portfolio, which can be used to provide sophisticated user interface functionality with an easy-to-use and stylish design. The solution is part of Renesas’ “Winning Combinations” comprehensive solutions that combine complementary Analogue + Power + Embedded Processing product portfolios. These engineering vetted solutions are engineered to help customers accelerate their designs and get to market faster. Renesas offers more than 250 Winning Combinations with compatible devices that work together seamlessly for a wide range of applications and end products. They can be found here.

Availability and more information

The RX140 group of MCUs is available now in 32- to 64-pin packages with 64KB of flash memory. Mass production for additional configurations and memory sizes over 128KB will be available starting in February 2022. Pricing will vary based on package and memory configuration. The reference price for the R5F51403ADFM#30 in a 64-pin LFQFP package with 64 KB of flash memory is US $1.02 (€0.88) (excluding tax) in 10,000-unit quantities (Pricing and availability subject to change).

To learn more about the new Renesas RX140 MCUs, visit here:

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Technical standards organisation, GlobalPlatform has launched its free beta manufacturer usage description (MUD) File Service to simplify and secure IoT device network onboarding and management. The service helps manufacturers to easily share the intent, capabilities and requirements of their devices.

With simple access to this information, network managers can automatically accept or reject access, to ensure devices can function effectively and securely. This will solve scalability issues in IoT, helping network managers to manage the rapidly growing number, and types, of IoT devices in their environments safely and efficiently.

“The deployment of IoT devices is increasing rapidly, along with the number of different device types, each of which has unique network access requirements,” says Tim Polk, senior computer scientist, NIST. “To maintain security, it is vital that networks are able to distinguish device requirements to ensure the correct levels of access are given. We are excited to see industry-driven solutions like GlobalPlatform’s MUD File Service establish options for device makers and network managers looking to streamline connectivity while improving security.”

MUD files enable a network to automatically identify the requirements and allowed behaviours for specific devices. These can then be communicated to services like firewalls and network management systems. This enables the network to protect the connected devices, and be protected against devices that are not behaving as they should during provisioning and throughout their lifecycle.

“By offering a simple platform for device makers to create and publish MUD files, and generate URLs to enable access to them, GlobalPlatform is simplifying secure device connectivity,” comments Gil Bernabeu, technical director, GlobalPlatform. “MUD files have an important role to play in the future of IoT, to automate connectivity and support network managers in dealing with an increasingly diversified device ecosystem. This is the simplest, cheapest and least impactful way to enhance IoT trust.”

MUD is a recognised international standard published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The MUD specification can be found here.

GlobalPlatform is currently offering a free Beta version of its MUD File Service under its broader IoTopia initiative, practical implementation strategy to support the deployment and management of secure IoT devices. More capabilities will be added to the service as it expands and evolves to serve the changing needs of manufacturers and network managers. To learn more click here.

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ITTIA, a provider of time series high-performance embedded database software for autonomous systems and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, announced plans to support STMicroelectronics platforms including STM32U5, STM32MP1, STM32F, STM32H7, STM32G4, STM32L4/L5 and STM32WB, a series of efficient microcontrollers and microprocessors.

The combination of ITTIA database and STM32 offers the best edge-optimised data processing and management platform, so manufacturers can gain full insight to monitor, processes and manage IoT device time series data.

ITTIA database is architected with the sole purpose of high-performance device-level time series data processing, storage, and distribution, which adds important value to advanced device applications, including mainstream MCUs and MPUs.

ITTIA database represents the next generation of data processing and management developed from the ground up for embedded devices. This dual-engine database, architected for time series data management, helps customers overcome common data management engineering challenges to accelerate time to market.

The STM32 delivers processing performance up to the industry’s highest benchmark scores for MCUs based on Arm Cortex®-M processors, with hardware-based security capabilities. The combination of ITTIA embedded database and STMicroelectronics boosts IoT design productivity so manufacturers can benefit from a verified solution when creating MCU and MPU software for embedded systems.

ITTIA database highlights for supported STM32 platforms include:

• Processing time series data on the edge in real time
• High performance concurrent read/write on flash media
• Distribute embedded data across heterogeneous devices
• Robust APIs: web services, C/C++, and more
• Developer freedom to remotely access and export data in browser
• Cross-platform: FreeRTOS, Azure RTOS ThreadX support, and more

“ITTIA has been an ST Authorised Partner and is committed in adding the most database value to ST’s comprehensive ecosystem by providing modern embedded database software for their wide range of popular hardware,” says Sasan Montaseri, president of ITTIA. “On supported STM32 applications processors, ITTIA database offers significant data management power to monitor, process and store data at the edge, and we offer our STM32 benchmark results and performance metric to the public.”

ITTIA DB SQL for STM32 applications processors is available for evaluation here.

ITTIA is an ST Microelectronics Authorised Partner and offers a joint webinar with ST and will present next generation time series embedded database software for STM32 devices, the culmination of decades of evolution, in a compact, self-managed package. For more click here

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(Sponsored Feature) Large hospitals and medical organizations usually have a large stock of medical assets and goods.  A lot of these consumables, medical devices and other assets are very expensive.  They are highly used and require frequent maintenance.  With traditional management methodologies, the workload of asset management is high.  These assets are often misplaced.  When they are in need, it takes a long time to look them up as there is no way to locate these items immediately.  A huge amount of manpower and time have not been spent effectively and this has led to low efficiency and impact on the quality of services.   To this end, a lot of hospitals have introduced UHF RFID technology including RFID solutions, UHF RFID readers and others to track and locate valuable assets in real-time in order to improve asset management.

Specifically, the valuable assets are labeled with RFID tags which carry information about these items.  Subsequent asset inventory, maintenance, search work and record can be promptly completed by reading the tags using RFID intelligent terminals such as CHAINWAY C66 RFID readers, R6 UHF Sled readers, UHF fixed readers, etc.  This significantly enhances the accuracy and speed of the process and improves productivity.  This helps not only saving valuable time of the health care personnel, but also supporting more accurate inventory and avoiding unnecessary wastage.

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