Renesas Technology America Inc. has introduced the H8SX/1544F, a 32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microcontroller for automotive applications including high-performance instrumental clusters.

The 40 MHz device features an enhanced two-channel, CAN-compatible LAN controller, a 512-KB flash memory that can be accessed in one cycle at full clock speed, and a stepping motor control timer with a driver that can drive the motors of up to six gages of meters simultaneously.

Paul Fox, marketing director of Renesas’ automotive business, said the extended-temperature chip (-40 degrees C to +105 degrees C) is the second-phase product for automotive applications in the firm’s H8SX family.

Fox said hardware functions built-into the H8SX/1544F ease and simplify the design of in-vehicle control systems and reduce the load on the CPU. The two-channel CAN controller is enhanced with a filtering function and other improvements that boost network performance and reliability in the noisy environments typically found in cars and trucks. Other peripheral functions include six 16-bit general-purpose timer channels, 12 16-bit PWM timer channels, the previously mentioned stepping motor control timer, an 8-bit watchdog timer, a 16-bit watch timer, a 16-channel 10-bit A/D converter and a 2-channel 8-bit D/A converter. To produce warning tones and other audible alerts, the MCU also provides a 4-channel sound generator. On-chip data communication functions for connecting to external devices include a 16-bit external bus extension function, three serial communication interface (SCI) channels, two synchronous serial communication unit (SSU) channels, a 2-channel I2C bus interface, and four DMAC channels for high-speed data transfers.

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