Issue
157 August 2003
Spotlight
on Renesas H8 Family
Hitachi
and Mitsubishi Market MCUs for Embedded Systems
by
Jeff Bachiochi
Whether
you design medical, communications, or automotive
components, you’re sure to find numerous applications
for Renesas Technology’s H8 family of devices. So,
before you begin your next project, you should familiarize
yourself with the company’s vast suite of H8 products.
To do so, take a look at Jeff’s comprehensive survey
of the H8 family members and their specs.
Start
•
Family Architecture • H8
Series Options • H8/300L
SLP Series • H8/Tiny Series
•
H8/300H Series
•
H8S Series
•
Choices •
Sources
and PDF
“Effective
April 1, 2003 Hitachi Semiconductor America has merged
with the system LSI operations of Mitsubishi Electric
U.S. and created Renesas Technology America, Inc.”
Hmm,
that wasn’t exactly what I had expected when I first
attempted to access Hitachi’s web site. Upon further
investigation, I found that Hitachi and Mitsubishi had
reached an agreement more than a year ago to integrate
their LSI businesses. Utilizing the core strengths (e.g.,
microcontrollers, logic, analog, and discrete devices)
of both companies, the new enterprise plans to concentrate
on the mobile, network, automotive, and digital home
electronics markets.
Renesas
is organized into three areas: MPU, SoC, and SiP; mixed-signal,
RF, and discrete devices; and flash memory and SRAM.
The MPU line includes Hitachi’s 4-, 8-, 16-, and 32-bit
microcomputers. The H8/SuperH family of microcontrollers
touts upward code compatibility throughout the entire
family. Smack dab in the middle of the family stands
the H8 8- and 16-bit devices.
This
month, I will spotlight a number of devices within the
H8 family. With this information, you will be able to
make some sense out of the vast sea of Renesas devices.
You’re sure to find this information to your advantage
if you’re planning on entering a project in the Renesas
H8 Design 2003: Everywhere You Imagine contest.
MEET
THE H8 FAMILY
The
H8 selection guide has nearly 350 different microcontrollers
to choose from. Trying to choose the right device for
your application is such a daunting task that you may
be inclined to look elsewhere. To help whittle down
the giant H8 oak, I’ll show you how a few typical devices
stack up against one another.
The
devices I’ve chosen are all available with flash memory.
You’ll find that advantageous when developing applications
because you can change the code and update the device
even when in-circuit. The devices also include low-cost
emulators that are available for real-time debugging
when you’re using resources built in the target hardware.
The
H8 family was designed for low-power, high-performance
embedded systems in the consumer, industrial, medical,
communication, and automotive markets. The family ranges
from the 8-bit low-cost, low pin count, super low-power
devices up to the latest 64-bit, high-performance devices
(see Figure 1). In this column, I’m concentrating on
the 8- and 16-bit MCUs in the H8 family and leaving
the high-performance 32- and 64-bit SuperH group for
another time.
|
(Click
here to enlarge)
|
Figure
1—Be sure to study the performance versus features
lineup of the H8 family of MCU/MPUs. Although the
natural technological progression is for bigger,
better, and faster devices, these are not reasons
to choose only from the newest devices for a particular
design. |
Renesas
combines fast MCU speeds, ROM or flash memory, power-down
modes, low EMI, and a convenient development environment
with more than 100 different on-chip peripherals. As
a result, the H8 family is one of the industry’s best
cost-per-performance values. A few of the industry-standard
interfaces that are supported include UART, SPI, I2C,
IrDA, CAN, and smart card.
