Designed for industrial, home appliances, and office equipment employing a human machine interface (HMI), the RZ/G Series extends the capabilities of the successful RZ/A Series MPUs—which supports 2D graphics at up to WXGA resolution—to deliver high-end performance in applications such as image processing, video sensing, and 3-D graphics and multimedia at up to 1080p resolution.

The new RZ/G Series of MPUs utilizes Renesas' proprietary Full HD video codec (processing up to 1080@60) in addition to the PowerVR SGX540 (RZ/G1E) or PowerVR SGX544MP2 (RZ/G1M) 3-D graphics core from Imagination Technologies Limited. These intellectual property (IP) blocks make it possible to develop highly effective user interfaces (UI) on products ranging from hand-held medical devices to digital signage by incorporate elements such as simple still images, 3-D graphics, plus video content. This functionality improves UI expressiveness and adds value to new products.

The RZ/G Series is comprised of two product versions: the RZ/G1E with dual ARM Cortex-A7 CPU cores operating at up to 1.0 gigahertz (GHz) and the RZ/G1M with dual Cortex-A15 CPU cores operating at up to 1.5 GHz. This range of high-end options lets customers tune their designs for either power or performance. Each RZ/G device includes an 800 megahertz (MHz) DDR3 external memory interface, which provides ample performance margin for applications including image processing of multiple video streams for monitoring systems and video sensing such as face recognition.

High-speed interfaces including USB 3.0, PCI-Express, and serial ATA are integrated on-chip, allowing easy expansion of functionality without the need for external components. Functional IP modules and memory map are common over the entire RZ/G Series lineup, so the same drivers and software can be shared among different products in the series, thereby enhancing design scalability.

Hierarchy of support and services provided in collaboration with partners

The RZ/G Series is backed by an ecosystem of Renesas partners that provides system integration services, graphical user interface (GUI) frameworks, middleware, OS support, board design, as well as sales of evaluation and mass-production boards. These products and services help limit the increasing workload and cost associated with hardware and software development of complex, high-end systems.

Buoyed by partners like Cogent Embedded, Timesys, Adeneo Embedded, and others - all leaders in embedded open source development with expertise spanning Linux and Android system integration, middleware, and graphical user interface (GUI) support - customers will be able to confidently tackle their next embedded projects and remove 40 percent from their typical development cycle.

RZ/G Series MPUs support Linux 3.10 LTSI, which will let customers develop secure and flexible systems within a proven, industry-standard development flow. Android KitKat support will be available later in 2015, and Linux kernel 4.1 will also be supported.

The two available starter kits for the RZ/G1E and RZ/G1M devices will simplify the prototyping process. Each starter kit offers an abundance of connectivity options plus board support package and documentation. With the new high-end RZ/G Series of MPUs, Renesas simplifies complex display and control devices with a world-class integrated software and hardware platform.