Japanese electronics company Renesas used last week’s Embedded World in Nuremberg to present the first live demonstration of a microcontroller (MCU) based on the recently announced Arm Cortex-M85 processor.

“We are the first to show working silicon of the M85 core,” said Kavita Char, principal product marketing manager in the IoT division. “Many applications need the extra compute performance. We are seeing many applications that need this new core, such as industrial and home automation”

A real product using the core is expected out early next year.

The M85 processor uses Helium technology, Arm’s M-Profile Vector Extension that enables DSP and ML capabilities and helps accelerate compute intensive applications such as endpoint AI.

Delivering over six CoreMark/MHz, the M85 can enable demanding IoT use cases that require the highest compute performance and DSP or ML capability, realised on a single, simple-to-programme Cortex-M processor. Deterministic operation, short interrupt response time and low-power support are included.

Next year’s RA MCUs based on the M85 processor could provide breakthrough performance and deterministic, low latency, real-time operation for application needs across numerous markets. The devices aim to bridge the gap between MCUs and MPUs, enabling complex and compute-intensive applications with the lower power consumption and ease of use of an MCU. This should help users preserve their investment in software development and reduce costs of migration to an MPU-based system.

The architecture supports Arm TrustZone technology for protection of secure assets. Combined with TrustZone, Renesas’ integrated cryptographic engine, immutable storage, key management and tamper protection should provide comprehensive and integrated secure element functionality.

The core will be supported by Renesas’ FSP flexible software package that enables faster application development by providing all the infrastructure software needed, including multiple RTOSs, BSP, peripheral drivers, middleware, connectivity, networking and security stacks as well as reference software to build complex AI, motor control and graphics products.

Renesas introduced the RA family of Arm Cortex-M based MCUs in 2019, and is targeting applications for IoT, AI, ML, industrial automation, medical, building automation and home appliances. Since then, the firm has introduced 17 MCU groups encompassing well over 200 individual parts.

Renesas also announced at the show the SmartBond DA1470x family of Bluetooth LE systems-on-chip (SoCs) for wireless connectivity.

The DA14706 is already at the heart of the recently launched Xiaomi Mi band 7 with a 4.1cm 192×490 AMOLED display, 120 sports modes and a 15-day battery life for typical use.

“Xiaomi has used it for a smart watch and we are now bringing it into the broader market,” said Alex Kengen from Renesas. “It could be used in smart home equipment, medical devices with big displays such as insulin pumps, and industrial applications.”

The family integrates a power management unit, hardware voice activity detector, a GPU and Bluetooth LE connectivity on a single chip. This combined functionality provides smart IoT devices with sensor and graphical capabilities and seamless, low-power, always-on audio processing.

“It listens to the ambient noise and if it detects a surge it starts voice recognition,” said Kengen.

This makes it suitable for wearables such as smartwatches and fitness trackers, glucose monitor readers and other consumer medical and healthcare devices, home appliances with displays, industrial automation and security systems, and Bluetooth consoles such as e-bikes and gaming equipment.