New Renesas Ultra-Low Power MCU with Advanced Security and Targeted Peripheral Set

Renesas has introduced the RA4C1 microcontroller (MCU) group based on an 80-MHz Arm Cortex M33 processor. The new devices offer ultra-low power consumption, advanced security features, abundant communication interfaces, and segment LCD support. This unique set of features and performance metrics is ideal for battery powered applications that need strict security, including gas, water, and industrial flow meters, as well as smart locks, thermostats, building controls and industrial user interfaces.

The RA4C1 MCUs employ proprietary low-power technology that delivers 168 µA/MHz active mode @ 80 MHz and standby current of less than 1.79 µA with all the SRAM retained; the RA4C1 also support a real-time clock (RTC) with its own dedicated power domain, supporting easy battery backup for the time.

The RA4C1 MCUs offer an RSIP-300 security engine that provides an isolated subsystem managed and protected by dedicated control logic. The new devices also include support for a 256-bit hardware unique key and True Randon Number Generator (TRNG), key management functionality with the ability to generate wrapped keys, SHA algorithms, hardware acceleration of AES, and ECC supporting NIST and Brainpool curves with a key length of up to 384 bits. The RA4C1 has also achieved PSA Certified Level 1 certification with European Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).

A 512 Kbyte dual bank on-chip flash enables easy and secure software updates with 96 kbytes of SRAM and 8 kbytes of dataflash for on chip data storage. Peripherals include a low-power ADC, an on-chip temperature sensor accurate to 1 percent, and an on-chip LCD controller to drive low power segment displays.

The RA4C1 MCUs are supported by Renesas’ Flexible Software Package (FSP). The FSP enables faster application development by providing all the infrastructure software needed, including multiple RTOS, BSP, peripheral drivers, middleware, connectivity, networking, and TrustZone support as well as reference software to build complex AI, motor control and cloud solutions. It allows customers to integrate their own legacy code and choice of RTOS with FSP, thus providing full flexibility in application development. The FSP eases migration of existing IP to and from either RA6 or RA2 Series devices.

https://www.renesas.com

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AAEON introduce an Intel Core Ultra 200H-powered developer board

AAEON’s UP brand has announced the release of the UP Xtreme ARL, its first product to feature the new Intel Core Ultra 200H Series platform (formerly Arrow Lake). The platform’s enhanced integrated CPU, GPU, and NPU provide up to 97 TOPs of AI performance, one of the reasons AAEON has positioned the product as a platform for professional developers to build advanced industrial robotics and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) applications.

The board is the first Arrow Lake-powered embedded product to have obtained Intel ESQ (Edge Solution Qualification). This qualification ensures validated hardware and software integration for high-performance, reliable, and scalable AI edge computing applications.

The UP Xtreme ARL’s enhanced chip architecture sees the board leverage performance advancements through both a power-optimised core microarchitecture and Intel DL Boost-accelerated integrated Intel Arc 140T GPU. In addition, its Intel AI Boost NPU offers extensive software framework support, something that the brand’s UP Community will see as a big plus for streamlined model development.

As expected, the UP Xtreme ARL is equipped with a Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin GPIO, while also offering dual RS-232/422/485 pin headers, as well as MIPI-CSI camera support via a 61-Pin FPC connector. The board provides two USB 3.2 Gen 2 interfaces via two Type-A ports, alongside three USB 2.0 interfaces via one Type-A port and an internal 10-pin header offering an additional two. Alongside its varied USB configuration is two ethernet ports, one providing 2.5GbE and one Gigabit Ethernet speed. The board offers substantial expansion options, with two M.2 2280 M-Key slots joining one SATA drive for storage, alongside both M.2 2230 E-Key and M.2 3052 B-Key slots for wireless module support.

For OS support, the UP Xtreme ARL is compatible with Windows 10/11 LTSC, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and Yocto 5+. AAEON also provides a variety of drivers and setup documentation for GPU, NPU, and IPU functionality on its website product page.

https://www.aaeon.com.

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New Renesas USB-C power solution improves performance

Renesas has introduced the RAA489300/RAA489301 high-performance buck controller designed with a three-level buck topology used for battery charging and voltage regulation in USB-C systems such as multiple-port USB-PD chargers, portable power stations, PC docking station, robots, drones, and other applications that need a high efficiency DC/DC controller.

The three-level buck converter topology enabled by the new IC delivers exceptional efficiency and significantly reduces the required inductance for regulating the output voltage. Its innovative design minimises power loss and reduces system size, making it ideal for compact, high-performance applications.

The three-level topology consists of two additional switches and a flying capacitor compared to a conventional two-level buck converter. The flying capacitor reduces voltage stress on the switches, allowing designers to use lower voltage FETs with better figures of merit. The result is reduced conduction and switching losses. This topology also enables the use of a smaller inductor with peak-to-peak ripple of only about 25 percent of that of a two-level converter, enabling reduced inductor core and direct current resistance losses.

Key Features of the RAA489300/RAA489301 battery charger and voltage regulator:

Wide range of input and output voltages for use in voltage battery packs and with various PD adapters
Integrated safety features with built-in protection mechanisms against overcharging, overheating, and voltage anomalies
Scalability for easily adapting to various power levels and application requirements
Optimised switching architecture divides voltage across power switches, improving efficiency
Minimises power consumption, contributing to greener, more sustainable designs
Lower thermal stress improves system reliability and extends product lifespan

https://www.renesas.com

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With new standards for AI inference, Axelera Metis AI accelerators now at Rutronik

Rutronik has recently added Axelera AI, a European pioneer in AI and edge computing, to its franchise partners. Axelera Metis products offer an alternative to traditional GPU-based solutions. The Metis AI platform is a holistic AI solution that combines state-of-the-art hardware and software. The hardware portfolio includes the Metis M.2 AI Inference Acceleration Card and the Metis PCIe AI Inference Acceleration Card.

At the heart of the Metis AI platform is the Metis AIPU (AI Processing Unit), a quad-core chip based on a proprietary RISC-V architecture and Digital In-Memory Computing (D-IMC). This architecture enables AI inference performance of up to 214 TOPS with energy efficiency of 15 TOPS/W. This makes it ideal for computer vision inference on the edge and provides scalable technology to meet the future demands of AI acceleration workloads.

The hardware is complemented by the Voyager SDK, a software package that simplifies model deployment, optimisation and integration.

Metis M.2 AI Inference Acceleration Card
This card, powered by the Metis AIPU, is ideal for applications with limited space that require powerful AI inference. In addition, the M.2 card has 1 GB of dedicated DRAM memory, which helps reduce power consumption and enables easier integration into systems. Its inference performance is up to 214 TOPS with 5 to 9 W typical application performance. A PCIe Gen3 x4 interface and security features (Secure Boot, Root of Trust) round out the product. The Metis M.2 AI Inference Acceleration Card is optionally available with an active cooling solution.

Target applications:
• Surveillance: easy deployment in buildings, construction sites or event venues
• Robotics: high-resolution advanced gesture recognition, pose estimation and decoding of human
intentions
• Medical: improved accuracy of real-time diagnosis, monitoring, imaging and analysis
• Agritech: crop analysis, smart irrigation, pest control, automated harvesting
• Drones: navigation, object detection and monitoring in lightweight, battery-powered UAV systems

Metis PCIe AI Inference Acceleration Card
The PCIe single slot cards in HHHL form factor with PCIe Gen3 x4 interface are also powered by the Metis AIPU. The PCIe version features up to 3,200 FPS for ResNet- 50, up to 214 TOPS with typical application performance of 8 W to 15 W, and active air cooling. Security features such as Secure Boot and Root of Trust are also integrated. It is available with 4 GB and 16 GB memory configurations.

Additional options with four Metis chips will be available soon, enabling up to 856 TOPS. These will then be available with 16 GB and 64 GB memory.
Target applications:
• Security: faster detection of incidents such as break-ins, falls or abandoned luggage
• Industry 4.0: fault detection, quality control, occupational safety
• Retail: customer behaviour, inventory monitoring, automated checkout systems
• Mobility: toll collection, enforcement and parking management
• Logistics: improving operational efficiency and safety in logistics centres

Both products support simultaneous inference on multiple cameras and enable the parallel use of independent neural networks. They offer a wide range of end-to-end AI pipelines and pre-trained models for a wide variety of applications. Advanced quantisation tools also ensure high prediction accuracy without compromising performance.

https://rutronik-tec.com

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