Renesas unveiled an “RZ-G2” family of up to octa-core Cortex-A53 and -A57 SoCs with an updated RZ/G Linux Platform with the 64-bit Arm CIP SLTS kernel for 10 year+ availability. There are also two 96Boards dev boards.

Since Renesas Electronics Corp. announced its dual-core Cortex -A7 and -A15 based RZ/G family of SoCs back in 2015, it has released variants such as the octa-core RZ/G1H with 4x 1.4GHz Cortex-A15 cores and 4x 780MHz Cortex-A7 cores, as well as a dual -A7 RZ/N1D SoC aimed at industrial multi-protocol communications. Now Renesas has launched an R2-G2 family that moves into Cortex-A53 and -A57 architectures in four models ranging from dual- to octa-core.

RZ/G Linux Platform with CIP integration
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The RZ/G2 SoCs offer up to 2.7 times the CPU performance of the RZ/G1 family, says Renesas. The updated, verified RZ/G Linux Platform is also the first SoC to support the Linux Foundation’s 64-bit Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) Super Long-Term Support (SLTS) Linux kernel, which means you get more than 10 years of kernel support. CIP is also planning to work on other standards for industrial and infrastructure applications.

The four RZ/G2 models, which are described in more detail in the chart below, include:

• RZ/G2E — 2x -A53 @ 1.2GHz; PowerVR GE8300; HD video
• RZ/G2N — 2x -A57 @ 1.5GHz; PowerVR GE7800; 4K video
• RZ/G2M — 2x -A57 @ 1.5GHz, 4x -A53 @ 1.2GHz; PowerVR GE6250; 4K video
• RZ/G2H — 4x -A57 @ 1.5GHz, 4x -A53 @ 1.2GHz; PowerVR GE6650; 4K video

RZ/G2 model comparison
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The RZ/G2 is touted for error checking and correction (ECC) protection on both internal (L1/L2) and external memories. Supported memories include LPDDR4 and DDR3L RAM up to 3200 MT/S plus QSPI and eMMC. Peripheral support includes USB 3.0, SATA, and PCIe. The PowerVR GPUs support H.264 and H.265 decoding, as well as HDMI, LVDS, and MIPI-CSI2 interfaces.

RZ/G2

The CIP SLTS enabled RZ/G Linux Platform includes VLP and verification test software with a graphics user interface (GUI) framework that supports HTML5 and Qt. Security features include Arm TrustZone, cryptographic acceleration, secure key generation and storage, secure boot, and establishment of unique root of trust.

Renesas is also prepping two 96Boards compatible development boards, both of which appear to be multi-board sets. The RZ/G2E 96 Development Kit is equipped with the dual-core RZ/G2E model with 2GB DDR3L and the RZ/G2M 96 Development Kit offers the hexa-core RZ/G2M.

RZ/G2 Development Kits
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Otherwise the development board specs appear similar, with a microSD slot, a GbE port, 2x USB 2.0 ports, and a USB 3.0 port. The SBCs also have WiFi/BT radios, HDMI outputs, and either LVDS or MIPI-DSI. The RZ/G2M kit has been adopted as the official Arm64 reference board for the next CIP SLTS kernel.

 
Further information

Sample shipments of the six-core RZ/G2M and two-core RZ/G2E are available now. The other two models will be “released over time,” says Renesas. Mass production is scheduled to start in Q1 2020. More information may be found in Renesas’ RZ/G2 announcement and product page.

Renesas is demonstrating the RZ/G2 SoCs in Booth 1-310 (Hall 1) at Embedded world, Feb. 26-28, 2019, in Nuremberg, Germany.