Renesas announced the addition of 36 new models to the R8C/Tiny series of 16-bit microcontrollers with on-chip flash memory. The line-up includes devices that feature a reduced minimum operating voltage and wide temperature range in addition to a LIN interface. The new models are classified into four groups: the 32-pin package version R8C/26 and R8C/27 groups, and the 20-pin package version R8C/28 and R8C/29 groups. The four groups feature the 16-bit R8C CPU core and 20 MHz maximum operating frequency. The line-up includes models that feature a reduced minimum operating voltage of 2.2 V from the 2.7 V of previous R8C/Tiny series products, in addition to an extended operating voltage range of 2.2 V to 5.5 V. The line-up also provides a LIN automotive network compatible interface, despite the low pin count, and wide temperature range (-40 to 125°C) models. The majority of processing is performed by hardware using an 8-bit timer channel and a synchronous/UART serial interface channel. In addition, a watchdog timer, EEPROM and sub-microcontroller that have previously been three separate components can now be implemented with a single R8C/Tiny series chip.

All models include on-chip flash memory offering single power-supply, high-speed programming, high reliability and on-board programming capability.  Flash memory for program storage is available in four capacities of 32, 24, 16 and 8 Kbytes for the R8C/26 and R8C/27 groups and two capacities of 16 and 8 Kbytes for the R8C/28 and R8C/29 groups. The R8C/27 and R8C/29 groups also include 2 Kbytes (as two 1-Kbyte blocks) of data flash, Renesas Technology’s proprietary flash memory used mainly for data storage.

The E8 Emulator on-chip debugger allowing single-pin interfacing is available as a development environment. The single-pin connection capability enables all I/O pins to be used during debugging. An additional feature of this debugger is that it can be used as a flash memory writer as well as an emulator.

The packages used are a 32-pin LQFP (7 mm x 7 mm) and a 20-pin LSSOP (Low-profile Shrink Small Outline Package) (6.5 mm x 4.4 mm). Shipping forms include factory-programmed flash memory product shipment as well as blank flash memory product shipment. Sample shipments will begin from December 2005 sequentially.