All mainstream 32bit MCU families from Japanese semiconductor company Renesas Electronics have access to the Microsoft Azure real-time operating system (RTOS) embedded development suite, including its Azure IoT middleware.

Azure RTOS is integrated and available out-of-box in the recently released FSP flexible software package version 3.0 for the company’s RA MCUs, and the Synergy SSP software package version 2.0 for Synergy MCUs. Azure RTOS support for Renesas’ RX family is provided through the e² Studio integrated development environment.

Microsoft Azure RTOS includes Azure RTOS Thread X, a real-time operating system designed for deeply embedded applications. Among the multiple benefits it provides are real-time multithreading, inter-thread communication and synchronisation, and memory management. Azure RTOS Thread X offers features such as picokernel architecture, pre-emption-threshold, event chaining and system services.

“We have reached a critical milestone in our collaboration with Microsoft and are excited to be able to offer our customers access to this industry-leading RTOS platform across our 32bit MCU lines,” said Roger Wendelken, senior vice president at Renesas. “We’ve worked hard to ensure this integration enables a seamless developer experience with access to pre-integrated project templates and smart configurators. This integration leverages unique capabilities of our secure crypto engine, enabling a highly robust security foundation.”

In addition to Azure RTOS Thread X, designers of RA, RX and Synergy applications will have access to the following middleware stacks:

• Azure RTOS File X file allocation table (FAT)-compatible file system;
• Azure RTOS GUIX embedded graphical user interface (GUI) application design environment;
• Azure RTOS Trace X Windows-based analysis tool;
• Azure RTOS Net X Duo industrial-grade dual IPv4 and IPv6 TCP/IP network stack; and
• Azure RTOS USB X USB host and embedded stack.

“Empowering developers is one of the most effective ways for organisations to unlock innovation and increase time to value,” said Sam George, corporate vice president for Azure IoT at Microsoft. “This is the ambition of the integration of Azure RTOS with Renesas’ FSP and SSP software packages. This step forward marries Renesas’ leading development experience with the secure, scalable, and open edge-to-cloud IoT capabilities of our Azure IoT platform. There’s never been a better time to build on Renesas’ 32bit family of MCUs.”

Later this year, Renesas plans to release cloud development platforms providing developers with a framework to connect securely to and leverage the power of Azure IoT. These cloud platforms will have different connectivity options out-of-box, including Bluetooth, cellular, ultra-wideband, and Wifi 6 and 6e. These Azure certified kits will be available through the Azure device catalogue.

The Renesas FSP includes HAL driver and supports the RA MCUs based on 32bit Arm Cortex-M processors. It uses a GUI to simplify and accelerate the development process, while making it easier to transition from an original 8 or 16bit MCU design.

The Renesas SSP is an integrated, optimised and qualified suite of software that scales with end-product complexity and simplifies complex system-level services. A layered architecture enables developers to write their application with the application framework using common APIs, or by directly connecting to the device driver level as needed.