SANTA CLARA, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — November 29, 2017 — Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced the availability of the new RZ/N1 microprocessor (MPU) Solution Kit designed to support various industrial network applications including programmable logic controllers (PLCs), intelligent network switches, gateways, operator terminals and remote I/O solutions.

The new RZ/N1 Solution Kit is a complete development package that includes the hardware and software to enable faster prototyping of leading industrial Ethernet protocols such as EtherCAT®, EtherNet/IP™, ETHERNET Powerlink®, PROFINET®, Sercos®, and CANopen®, thereby accelerating development and saving up to six months of industrial network protocol integration into customers’ applications.

The new kit includes a CPU development board based on the RZ/N1S MPU. In addition, a comprehensive software package is included with all the drivers and middleware, sample protocol stacks, U-Boot and Linux®-based BSP, a unique inter-processor communication software, and even a user-friendly PinMuxing tool that can generate C-code header files that removes the complexity of pin configuration. The various software and sample code provides customers with a complete set of tools and frameworks to build their own application without any additional up-front costs or complexity.

Key features of the new RZ/N1 Solution Kit

• Enhanced operating system flexibility

Developers can now evaluate using the operating system (OS) ThreadX® for the applications subsystem, in addition to Linux that is already supported by the RZ/N1. This enables system developers to choose an OS depending on their specific application requirements. Both OS options support the leading industrial Ethernet protocols that have been implemented on RZ/N1.

Linux: A widely used OS with a very large knowledge base community. For Yocto-based Linux development, Renesas provides the respective Yocto recipes to build the Linux, U-Boot and root file system. Using Qt abstracted set of APIs, GUI applications can also be developed and ported to different targets.

ThreadX: Renesas provides a sample reference port of Express Logic’s X-Ware IoT platform powered by ThreadX on the application subsystem. ThreadX is designed specifically for deeply embedded, real-time, and IoT applications. It provides advanced scheduling, communication, synchronization, timer, memory management, and interrupt management facilities.

• Enables PLC programming compatible with IEC 61131-3 by CODESYS®

The new solution kit allows evaluation of CODESYS®, a leading hardware independent IEC 61131-3 development system for programming and creating programmable logic controller (PLC) applications. Among others it supports Industrial Ethernet master stacks for EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, Sercos, CANOpen and PROFINET. Furthermore, the embedded LCD controller featured in the RZ/N1D makes great use of the CODESYS® target visualization tool, enabling product development with graphical visualization screens. Having CODESYS support enables the device to be either a protocol slave device but also as a master, which highlights the flexibility of the RZ/N1 Group MPUs.

Availability

The enhanced RZ/N1 Solution Kit for the RZ/N1D and RZ/N1S Groups of MPUs are available now through Renesas Electronics and representative distributor partners. The solution kit for the RZ/N1L is scheduled to be available in 1H 2018. The kit includes a variety of sample applications, development tools, drivers as well as evaluation versions of the protocol stacks for faster prototyping and integration.

Renesas will demonstrate the new kit at SPS-IPC Drives 2017 (stand 130 in Hall 10.1), to be held November 28-30, 2017 in Nuremberg, Germany.

For more information about Renesas, follow Renesas Electronics America at @RenesasAmerica on Twitter and https://www.facebook.com/RenesasAmericas/.

About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation ( TSE: 6723) delivers trusted embedded design innovation with complete semiconductor solutions that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices to enhance the way people work and live—securely and safely. A global leader in microcontrollers, analog, power and SoC products, Renesas provides the expertise, quality, and comprehensive solutions for a broad range of Automotive, Industrial, Home Electronics (HE), Office Automation (OA) and Information Communication Technology (ICT) applications to help shape a limitless future. Learn more at renesas.com.

(Remarks) EtherCAT is registered trademark and patented technology, licensed by Beckhoff Automation GmbH, Germany. PROFINET is a registered trademark of PROFIBUS and PROFINET International (PI). Sercos is a registered trademark of Sercos International e.V. CANopen is a registered trademark from CAN in Automation e.V. EtherNet/IP is a trademark of ODVA, Inc. Ethernet POWERLINK is the registered trademark of Ethernet POWERLINK Standardization Group (EPSG). Arm is a registered trademark of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the EU and/or elsewhere. All rights reserved. IAR Embedded Workbench and IAR Systems are registered trademarks of IAR Systems, Inc. LINUX is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. ThreadX is a registered trademark of Express Logic, Inc. CODESYS is a registered trademark of 3S-Smart. All registered trademarks or trademarks are the property of their respective owners.