The top-end 64-bit RZ/G3E has a 1.8GHz quad-core Arm Cortex-A55, a 512Gop/s Ethos-U55 NPU for AI and a Cortex-M33. External memory is handled via a 32-bit LPDDR4/LPDDR4X bus with ECC.
“This architecture runs AI applications such as image classification, object recognition, voice recognition and anomaly detection,” said the company. “Designed for human-machine interface applications, it delivers 1,920×1,080 video at 60frame/s on two independent displays.”
A lower-end version can be dual-core and some omit the NPU.
For images there is 3D graphics hardware and an H.264/H.265 codec.
Output interfaces include dual-link LVDS, MIPI-DSI and parallel RGB, and there is a MIPI-CSI camera interface for video input and or sensing.
Among other interfaces are: two lanes of PCI Express 3.0 for up to 8Gbit/s, USB 3.2 Gen2 for 10Gbit/s, 2x USB 2.0, CAN-FD and dual-channel Gigabit Ethernet.
The microcontroller is expected to run Linux and Renesas offers its own ‘verified Linux package’, which is based on Civil Infrastructure Platform industrial Linux.
The board support package supports “the latest”, said Renesas LTS Linux kernel, and Yocto. “Ubuntu by Canonical and Debian are also available for server or desktop Linux environments.”
Power-wise, “RZ/G3E maintains sub-CPU operation and peripheral functions while [consuming] around 50mW, and around 1mW in deep stand-by mode”, according to the company. “It supports DDR self-refresh mode to retain memory data, enabling quick wake-up from deep stand-by for running Linux applications.”
Operation is over -40°C to 125°C, and the package is a 15x15mm FCBGAs, with a 21x21mm 625pad in the pipeline. Some variants of this processor do not have a complete feature set.
The company intends to be able to supply these ICs for 15 years and said the system-on-modules containing it will be available from Tria (SMARC module), Aries Embedded (size-M OSM) and MXT (size-L OSM).
An evaluation kit is available that has a SMARC v2.1.1 module on a carrier board.
Renesas’ RZ/G3E product page. The company’s earlier RA8P1 MCU has the same NPU, but running at half the speed, without display capability.
