Renesas Electronics Corporation has come up with three new general-purpose 64-bit RZ/G2L microprocessors with the latest Arm Cortex-A55 technology for improved AI processing. These new processors, namely RZ/G2L, RZ/G2LC, and RZ/G2UL along with the existing mid-to-high-end RZ/G2E, RZ/G2N, RZ/G2M, and RZ/G2H MPUs provide scalability from entry-level to high-end design.
With the Arm Cortex-A55 CPU core technology, these devices can deliver approximately 20% improved processing performance compared to the previous Cortex-A53 core and also offers around 6x faster essential processing in AI applications. The new MPUs from the company integrate camera-input interfaces, a 3D graphics engine, and a video codec, providing cost-efficient support for sophisticated functionality for human-machine interface (HMI) applications like multimedia processing, GUI rendering, and AI image processing.
Additionally, these MPUs feature the Cortex-M33 core which enables them to perform real-time processing for sensor data collection without the need for external microcontrollers (MCUs) thereby reducing the overall system cost. The new microprocessors feature error checking and correction (ECC) protection for both on-chip memory and external DDR memory. Support for security functions make these MPUs suitable to be used in industrial applications requiring high reliability and extended service life, thereby speeding up the time-to-market.
Key features of the RZ/G2L Microprocessors
- Cortex-A55 and Cortex-M33 64-bit CPU
- 3D graphics functions (Arm Mali-G31 GPU) (RZ/G2L and RZ/G2LC)
- Video codec (H.264) (RZ/G2L)
- CAN interface with support for faster CAN FD protocol (RZ/G2L, RZ/G2LC, and RZ/G2UL)
- Gigabit Ethernet (2 channels on RZ/G2L and RZ/G2UL, 1 channel on RZ/G2LC)
- Memory error checking and correction (ECC) (RZ/G2L, RZ/G2LC, and RZ/G2UL)
- Support for DDR4 and DDR3L external memory interfaces (RZ/G2L, RZ/G2LC, and RZ/G2UL)
- 13 mm square (RZ/G2LC, RZ/G2UL), 15 mm square (RZ/G2L), and 21 mm square (RZ/G2L) BGA packages
Sample shipments of the new MPUs have already started with mass production scheduled to commence sequentially from August this year. Renesas is accepting reservations for an evaluation board that will allow customers to get an early start evaluating applications for RZ/G2L Group MPUs. Besides, the reference designs (circuit diagrams and board layout data) are also available. The company is currently developing power management IC (PMIC) products optimized for the RZ/G2L Group, and are scheduled for release later in 2021.
