Designed to connect to multiple sensors and convert the sensor output signals to digital data, these compact sensor hubs are used in a wide range of applications, such as computer operating environment monitoring for data center thermocouples in the industrial area, wearable health management devices in the healthcare field, and environmental sensing in greenhouses and factory farms in the agricultural industry.

The influx of information generated by big data combined with improvements in automation and sensor functions are opening new opportunities to improve business operations and ultimately contribute to improved quality of life. This has been true in many areas, notably in the industrial, healthcare, and agricultural areas.

In the industrial area, there are hopes for improving the efficiency of cooling and air conditioning by monitoring operation environments of computers and key communication equipment in data centers, and predicting failures by collecting and analyzing operating data.

In the healthcare area, the data recording and analysis of blood pressure, pulse rate, and other data by wearable equipment could support day-to-day health maintenance and lead to the early discovery of diseases.

In the agricultural area, monitoring the growth environment and conditions for crops with environmental sensors could lead to both cost savings, i.e., in fertilizers and heating and lighting costs, and improved crop quality overall. Increasingly higher-level sensing and even more sensors are required for these sorts of technology deployments, and the associated increased power consumption has become an issue, especially in battery-operated equipment.

There is also a trend toward rapid prototyping and shortening development time by using for example 3D printing and other technologies, and efforts are also needed in MCU development environments to easily support rapid prototyping and development.

The RL78/G11 MCUs were developed with these needs in mind, addressing not only miniaturization, lower power, and extended battery life in sensor hub and sensor application systems, but also the need for reduced user prototyping and development periods. Renesas will also provide a comprehensive development environment that includes evaluation boards, development tools, and software, to contribute both to power-saving electronic devices and to achieving an ecologically friendly society.

Samples of the RL78/G11 will be available from October 2016 onwards. Mass production is scheduled to begin in December 2016 and is expected to reach a volume of 50,000 units per month by 2018. Renesas plans to provide evaluation boards, development tools, and software for these products.