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ROADTEST POLL - Would you be interested in Roadtest a MCU board with High-Precision On-Chip Analog Front End?

rscasny

I've been speaking with a supplier who would like element14 to roadtest a MCU board. I'd like to gauge your interest. Here's some information about it and some documentation links:

imageSolution Starter Kit for RX23E-A MCU

Using the evaluation board (RSSK RX23E-A) equipped with RX23E-A and peripheral circuits for sensor measurement, and software that can be downloaded from the web, you can start analog characteristic evaluation immediately after purchasing the kit. By using this kit, it is possible to shorten the development period and bring it to market quickly.

About RX23E-A MCU

RX23E-A is a group from the RX MCU family with integrated high-precision analog front-end. Thanks to low noise and low drift of analog front-end features, the high-precision sensor measurement can be achieved with computation performance, system control, and communication in one chip. Refer to the RX23E-A product page for more detail.

RSSK Configuration and Evaluation Circuit

The kit consists of an evaluation board with the RX23E-A and peripheral circuits for sensor measurement, a K-type thermocouple, and is provided with the GUI and sample programs. These ready-to-use tools enable users to start evaluation of the A/D converter without hardware modification or software development.

The kit can be utilized to evaluate the measurements of thermocouples, RTD, and strain gauges, which are typical sensors in industrial equipment. Our evaluation of K-type thermocouples using the RSSK shows that the measured temperature error is within ±0.6°C under environments between -40°C and 85°C and the effective resolution is 19.4 bit, which means temperature deviation is equivalent to 0.0015°C at rms value. The measured temperature error, which is within the sensor error, validates the evaluation board as a reference design.

Documentation

RX23e-a datasheet 
Analog Front-End Mounted 32-bit Microcontroller Ideal for High Precision Sensing, Test and Measurement Equipment 

For more information

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  • I voted no.

    The processor peripherals are interesting but it uses a proprietary core supported by expensive Renesas development tools.

    The competition (based on ARM M cores) is widely supported by free, paid for (cheap or expensive) and open source tools. The same tools and debug interfaces can be employed on chips from many different sources.

    So it comes to  - is the price keen enough and the analogue front end good enough to put up with these disadvanatages - which could only ever be the case for mass production or very special low volume projects.

    The on chip ADC is nothing special (ADCs with much better performance are readily available and easy enough to interface) and the chips are not that cheap (in small quantities).

    So I conclude that the Roadtest is only interesting for its entertainment value or if the tester can make use of it in a one off special project.

    MK

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    I partialy agree with properietary core notice but disagree with adc note. Proprietary core can have benefits like better DSP/FPU instrctions in comparison with standard ARM Cores which could be very benefical and beat the disadvatages in aplications targeting analog base dapplications which this MUC targets. I did not study details of RXv2 instruction set and cannot objectively compare but I do not conider it bad by default.

    Also Renesas provide port of GCC for their RX family. jancumps know more information about it and If I remember correctly he mentioned some restrictions like that some example projects are hard to compile with free GCC and crypto accelerator is impossible to use, but generaly it should be possible to develop for this MCU for free at least in a limited way.

    I totaly disagree with ADC notice. Very few MCU has so advanced analog circuit integrated in MCU. I agree that many MUCs have ADCs with comparably high resolution but this has many other features like PGAs and constant current sources for using with resistive sensors which this MCU targets. See analog block on block diagram in product brief:

    image

    When I took in account all its analog features then it is quite a unique ADC peripheral and I do not know many other MCUs integrating all these. The only other MCU which has similar peripherial and I know about it is new MAX32675. Can you show any other MCU haivng this advanced ADC?

  • in reply to misaz

    I was mainly suggesting that it would usually be better to use an ARM M type micro with an external converter unless the planned production volume was very high.

    And if you are planning serious volume production a RoadTest of a £255 board isn't a very exciting prospect.

    If you actually have a use for the special features of the part and the board - great.

    We were asked if we would apply for the RoadTest, and I assumed that reasons would be helpful.

    MK

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  • in reply to misaz

    I was mainly suggesting that it would usually be better to use an ARM M type micro with an external converter unless the planned production volume was very high.

    And if you are planning serious volume production a RoadTest of a £255 board isn't a very exciting prospect.

    If you actually have a use for the special features of the part and the board - great.

    We were asked if we would apply for the RoadTest, and I assumed that reasons would be helpful.

    MK

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