Medtech

Renesas Expands RISC-V Embedded Processing Portfolio with New Voice-Control ASSP Solution

Renesas Electronics Corporation a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, extended its industry-leading RISC-V portfolio with the first RISC-V…

Published

1 year ago

April 1, 2023

This article was originally published by AITHORITY

Renesas Expands RISC-V Embedded Processing Portfolio with New Voice-Control ASSP Solution

Renesas Electronics Corporation a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, extended its industry-leading RISC-V portfolio with the first RISC-V MCU designed for voice-controlled HMI (human-machine interface) systems. The new R9A06G150 32-bit ASSP, developed in collaboration with RISC-V ecosystem partners, provides a complete, cost-effective, production-ready voice-control system solution that eliminates the need for RISC-V tools and upfront software investment.

“We are excited to be part of Renesas’ turnkey voice control solution”

Targeting residential and commercial building automation, home appliances, toys and healthcare devices, the new ASSP supports multiple languages and user-defined keywords for voice-recognition operations. The foundation of a turnkey voice-control solution, the R9A06G150 is pre-programmed using specialized application code developed by independent design houses with a proven ability to bring customer designs to volume production.

The introduction reinforces Renesas as a leader in the emerging market for the open-source RISC-V ISA (instruction set architecture) and follows introductions last year of a 32-bit motor-control ASSP and 64-bit general-purpose RZ/Five MPUs based on a 64-bit RISC-V CPU.

“Renesas continues to broaden our RISC-V MCU/MPU offering, in this case by delivering designers an innovative voice-command HMI with pre-developed software that shortens development time and time to market,” said Roger Wendelken, Senior Vice President in Renesas’ IoT and Infrastructure Business Unit. “Through close collaboration with the RISC-V partner ecosystem, this flexible, scalable ASSP solution allows customers interested in voice control to support different application classes on the same MCU hardware platform.”

Optimized Solution in Collaboration with Global Partners

Renesas’ new R9A06G150 voice-control HMI ASSP is based on RISC-V processing IP from Andes Technology Corp., which incorporated its AndesCore D25F CPU core based on the AndeStar V5 architecture. “We are excited to be part of Renesas’ turnkey voice control solution,” said Frankwell Lin, Andes’ Chairman and CEO. “The 32-bit AndesCore D25F was engineered to deliver high per-MHz performance in a small silicon footprint. Major mixed-signal ASSP developers such as Renesas can thus concentrate on their core engineering innovation and outsource non-critical elements of their design to CPU core suppliers such as Andes.”

Renesas will deliver the first RISC-V voice-control ASSP pre-programmed with dedicated application code developed by leading independent design house, Cyberon, an expert in voice-recognition technology, and Orbstar, a systems integrator specializing in embedded solutions. As they did with Renesas’ previous motor control ASSP, SEGGER Microcontroller GmbH will provide support for the voice-control ASSP with its complete ecosystem, including Embedded Studio and J-Link.

Key Features of the R9A06G150 Voice-Control HMI ASSP Solution

100MHz CPU with DSP instructions, floating-point extension and cost-optimized specification
Specialized audio PDM & SSI I/F for seamless connection to microphones and codecs
Compatible with low-cost analog microphones and outputs
Low power consumption helps end products to save energy for a greener environment through optimal mix of lowest active current, reduced standby current, background operation, SRAM power-off choices, fast wakeup, low power timers
Controlled by external host I/F via SCI/Uart, SPI, I3C or I2C
Small package support for cost and integration effectiveness (QFN 48, 32, 24)
256K program flash, 128K RAM, 16KB data flash
QSPI interface for easy memory expansion
Complete reference kit: hardware, software, tools, hardware/software datasheets, GUI manual, app notes