Renesas introduces the industry's first MCU based on the Arm® Cortex®-M85 processor

Renesas Electronics announced the introduction of the powerful RA8 Series MCUS with the breakthrough 3000 CoreMark and the full certainty, low latency and real-time operation required for customer applications. The RA8 family of MCUS is also the industry's first to feature an Arm® Cortex®-M85 processor, offering exceptional 6.39 CoreMark/MHz performance - a level of performance that will enable system designers to replace microprocessors (MPUs) commonly used in applications with RA MCUS. The new family of products is part of the popular RA family based on Arm Cortex-M processors. In addition, existing designs built for other RA products can be easily ported to the new RA8 MCU.

Helium technology to create superior AI performance

The new RA8 series MCUS deploy Arm Helium technology, Arm's M-type vector expansion unit. Compared to MCUS based on Arm Cortex-M7 processors, this technology can improve the performance of digital signal processors (DSPS) and machine learning (ML) by up to four times. This performance boost enables customers to eliminate additional DSP in their systems for certain applications. Renesas demonstrated the performance gains of Helium technology and showed off its first chips at Embedded World 2023. As a leader in edge and end AI, Renesas brings Reality AI Tools-based embedded AI and TinyML solutions to advanced applications in automotive, industrial and commercial products, as well as a broad portfolio of embedded processing and iot products. The new RA8 series MCUS leverage Helium to accelerate neural network processing, enabling edge and end devices to deploy natural language processing in voice AI and predictive maintenance applications.

Roger Wendelken, Senior Vice President and Head of the MCU Business at Renesas said: "We are very proud to introduce the new RA8 family with a powerful Arm Cortex-M85 processor. As the world's pre-eminent MCU supplier, our customers expect Renesas to deliver the performance and functionality they need. At the same time, rely on our assistance to grasp new trends and address technological challenges. The RA8 family sets new standards for MCU performance and functionality and will simplify the implementation of AI in a host of new applications."

Paul Williamson, Senior Vice President and general manager, IoT Line of Business, Arm said: The emergence of AI has increased the demand for edge and end-use intelligence to serve new applications in different markets including industrial automation, smart home, and healthcare. Built on Arm's highest performing and most secure Cortex-M processors to date, Renesas' new MCUS are optimized for signal processing and ML workloads and will be a game changer for innovators looking to capture the growing AI opportunity in embedded and iot with security in mind."

Leading security features

In addition to superior performance, the RA8 series MCU also achieves excellent security. The Cortex-M85 kernel includes Arm TrustZone® technology for isolation and secure/non-secure partitioning of memory, peripherals, and code. The RA8 series MCUS introduce the most advanced Renesas Security IP (RSIP-E51A), providing leading-edge encryption accelerators and supporting true secure boot. Other high-level security features include immutable storage for powerful hardware Root-of-Trust, eight-wire OSPI with instant decryption (DOTF), secure authentication debugging, secure factory programming, and tamper protection. In conjunction with Arm TrustZone, complete, fully integrated security component functionality is achieved. The Armv8.1-M architecture introduces pointer validation and Branch Target Identification (PACBTI) security extensions that mitigate software attacks against memory security violations and memory corruption. The RA8 series is also PSA certified Level 2 + Safety Element (SE), NIST CAVP, and FIPS 140-3 certified.

Low power characteristics

The RA8 family integrates new low-power features and multiple low-power modes to deliver industry-leading performance while enhancing energy efficiency. Low power modes, separate power domains, low voltage ranges, fast wake times, and a combination of low typical operating and standby currents reduce overall system power consumption and enable customers to meet regulatory requirements. The new Arm Cortex-M85 core can also perform a variety of DSP/ML tasks with lower power consumption.