Renesas introduces high-performance quad-core application processors to enhance its portfolio of industrial Ethernet and multi-axis motor control solutions

Renesas Electronics announced the launch of Renesas's highest performance microprocessor (MPU) for industrial applications, the RZ/T2H, with its powerful application processing power and real-time performance not only enables high-speed, high-precision control of up to 9-axis industrial robot motors, but also supports a variety of network communications, including industrial Ethernet, on a single chip. This MPU is mainly aimed at industrial controller devices such as programmable logic controllers (PLCS), motion controllers, distributed control systems (DCS) and computer numerical control (CNC).

With the increasing demand for unmanned production, industrial robots and industrial controller devices such as vertical multi-joint robots are being widely deployed to accelerate automated production processes, and the Renesas RZ/T2H MPU combines all the functions and performance required to develop these applications. Whereas traditional industrial systems require multiple MPUs or combinations of field programmable gate arrays (FPgas) to control these applications, the RZ/T2H MPU now requires only a single chip to meet all requirements, reducing the number of components and saving time and cost in FPGA program development.

Daryl Khoo, Vice President of Embedded Processing 1st Business Division at Renesas said: "Our RZ/T2M and RZ/T2L have been hugely successful in the market and the new RZ/T2H will build on this. The new product enables the company's industrial customers to leverage their existing design resources while addressing the more innovative and demanding industrial motor control and Linux applications. Our customers have been impressed by the exceptional performance of the RZ/T2H, which enables 9-axis motor control on a single chip!"

The single chip solution enables high performance application processing and fast real-time control

The RZ/T2H is equipped with four Arm® Cortex®-A55 application cpus operating at a maximum frequency of 1.2GHz, and for external memory, it supports 32-bit LPDDR4-3200 SDRAM. Two Cortex-R52 cpus operating at a maximum frequency of 1GHz handle real-time processing, with each core equipped with a total of 576KB of high-capacity tightly coupled memory (TCM). This makes it possible to perform CPU - and memory-intensive tasks such as Linux applications, robot trajectory generation, and PLC sequence processing on a single chip. At the same time, the RZ/T2H can also perform fast and accurate real-time control tasks such as motor control and industrial Ethernet protocol processing.

Motor control of up to 9 axes reduces component costs and development time

The Renesas RZ/T2H can control up to nine servo motors in industrial robots with high speed and precise operation, equipped with the necessary features for control of up to nine axes of motors, including three-phase PWM timer, Delta-σ interface for measuring current values, and more. And encoder interfaces (A-format™, EnDat, BiSS®, Hyperface DSL, and FA-CODER are supported). In addition, the peripherals for motor control are placed on the low-latency Peripherals port (LLPP) bus of the Cortex-R52 real-time CPU core, enabling high-speed CPU access.

Flexible support for network communication, including industrial Ethernet

The RZ/T2H comes with four Ethernet ports, three Gigabit Ethernet MACS (GMACS), and an Ethernet switch. It also supports EtherCAT, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, OPC UA, and next generation time Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards. The combination of Ethernet switches and GMAC enables the MPU to support multiple industrial Ethernet controllers and devices, providing flexibility to meet a wide range of controller needs, such as upper-layer Ethernet communications.

Dedicated boards and software for industrial robots and controllers

As with all Renesas MPUs, the RZ/T2H comes with the Renesas Flexible Configuration Package (FSP), as well as Linux packages with long-term support. Out-of-the-box multi-axis motor control evaluation solutions include inverter boards for driving 9-axis motors, multi-axis motor control packages, and Motion Utility, a motor control software tool. Sample protocols and software PLC packages for industrial Ethernet are also included to kick-start system development.

Micael Borgefeldt, Product Manager at IAR Systems, said: "As industrial equipment continues to evolve, these systems increasingly require more complex features and performance. With the latest RZ/T2H MPUs, including Renesas, we empower developers to unlock flexible application configurations in 32-bit MCUS and 64-bit high-end MPU multi-core environments. "Our IAR development solutions enable engineers to accelerate the next generation of industrial innovation, simplifying development processes and increasing efficiency like never before."

Successful product portfolio

Renesas also offers a "9-axis industrial motor control with Ethernet capabilities" solution. The solution combines the RZ/T2H with a number of compatible devices such as the RV1S9231A IGBT-driven photocoupler and the RV1S9353A optically isolated Delta-σ modulator to build a rich portfolio of "winning products." These "winning portfolios" are based on compatible devices that work seamlessly together, with a technologically proven system architecture that results in optimized, low-risk designs to accelerate time-to-market. Renesas has now launched more than 400 "winning portfolios" based on the various products in its product lineup.