February 2005, Issue 175

A Look at the M16C Lineup

RenesasInteractive

The convenient thing about RenesasInteractive is that it provides instant access to tutorials, webcasts, and virtual labs. The tutorials take nothing for granted. They allow you to choose where you want to spend your time. You can watch an MCU introduction, skip to an overview, or delve deep into the core or peripherals. On-demand webcasts are available. If you’re ready to get your hands dirty, you can work in the virtual lab environment. This allows you to write, assemble, debug, and run code on an actual piece of hardware connected to the server giving you access through your browser. Just think, you can develop and prove your contest entry even before your hardware arrives.

A quick registration process gets you into RenesasInteractive, where you can choose from a course catalog containing technical training materials for the H8 and M16C products. The application center covers embedded control, product design and debug, on-line software development, low real estate embedded control, low-power embedded systems, multimedia, and low-power operation areas. The product center covers specific technical information for each family of 8-, 16-, and 32-bit RISC/CISC microcontrollers. For instance, the 16/32-bit CISC M16C series section includes an introduction to MCUs, a first look at the M16C, a products overview, and information about the core architecture, clocks, power management, and peripherals.

When it comes to real hands-on learning, the evaluation center offers virtual labs for many products. With a virtual lab, you have access a Windows desktop via your web browser from a special server. From the desktop, you can use the actual Renesas development tools that come with each SKP evaluation tool as if they were installed on your PC. You can begin by reviewing prewritten tutorials and building them into executable code. When the code is finished, you can download and execute it on real hardware connected to the server.

After you’re comfortable using the high-performance embedded workshop (HEW) environment, you can begin writing your own applications and fully debug them through this on-line extension of your PC. You’re provided with your own segregated workspace on the server so you can return at any time and continue where you left off. With this environment you can develop your application (or contest entry) without having to hold any hardware. Pretty scary, eh?