Renesas Technology has introduced five SH7263 and SH7203 MCUs with a 200 MHz maximum operating frequency, vs.120 MHz for the current-generation SH7261. The new MCUs are based on SH2A-FPU CPU cores and feature a 480 Mb/s USB 2.0 host interface.

With an on-chip CD-ROM decoder and sampling rate converter, the SH7263 can be used in car audio and other digital audio systems. The SH7203 targets general consumer and industrial applications.

Renesas said its SH7261 has been used in car audio applications but car audio products equipped with audio data compression/expansion functions are becoming more widespread, as are built-in functions for connection between car audio and portable audio players. The firm is positioning its SH7263 against the “expensive DSPs and dedicated LSIs” typically used for digital audio processing, contending that the addition of digital audio processing functions to MCUs used for system control helps lower parts counts.