Setting new MCU performance bar with devices featuring AI acceleration

Renesas Electronics Corporation has introduced the RA8P1 MCU group, targeting AI and ML applications, as well as real-time analytics. The new MCUs set a new performance benchmark for MCUs by combining a 1GHz Arm Cortex-M85 and a 250MHz Cortex-M33 CPU core with the Arm Ethos-U55 NPU. This combination delivers the highest CPU performance of over 7,300 CoreMarks and AI performance of 256 GOPS at 500MHz.

The MCU is optimised for edge and endpoint AI applications, using the Ethos-U55 NPU to offload the CPU for compute-intensive operations in CNNs and RNNs to deliver up to 256 MACs per cycle that yield 256 GOPS performance at 500MHz. The new NPU supports most commonly used networks, including DS-CNN, ResNet, MobileNet Tiny YOLO, and more. Depending on the neural network used, the MCU provides up to 35x more inferences per second than the Cortex-M85 processor on its own.

The MCUs are manufactured on the 22ULL (22nm ultra-low leakage) process from TSMC, allowing ultra-high performance with very low power consumption. This process also facilitates the use of embedded Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) in the new MCUs. MRAM offers faster write speeds, along with higher endurance and retention, compared to Flash.

“There is explosive growth in demand for high-performance edge AIoT applications. We are thrilled to introduce what we believe are the best MCUs to address this trend,” said Daryl Khoo, vice president of Embedded Processing Marketing Division at Renesas. “The RA8P1 devices showcase our technology and market expertise and highlight the strong partnerships we have built across the industry. Customers are eager to employ these new MCUs in multiple AI applications.”

“The pace of innovation in the age of AI is faster than ever, and new edge use cases demand ever-improving performance and machine learning on-device,” said Paul Williamson, senior vice president and general manager, IoT Line of Business at Arm. “By building on the advanced AI capabilities of the Arm compute platform, Renesas’ RA8P1 MCUs meet the demands of next-generation voice and vision applications, helping to scale intelligent, context-aware AI experiences.”

“It is gratifying to see Renesas harness the performance and reliability of TSMC 22ULL embedded MRAM technology to deliver outstanding results for its RA8P1 devices,” said Chien-Hsin Lee, senior director of Speciality Technology Business Development at TSMC. “As TSMC continues to advance our embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) technologies, we look forward to strengthening our long-standing collaboration with Renesas to drive innovation in future groundbreaking devices.”

The company has integrated dedicated peripherals, ample memory and advanced security to address Voice and Vision AI and Real-time Analytics applications. For vision AI, a 16-bit camera interface (CEU) is included, supporting sensors up to 5MP, enabling camera and demanding Vision AI applications. A separate MIPI CSI-2 interface offers a low pin-count interface with two lanes, each up to 720Mbps—additionally, multiple audio interfaces, including I2S and PDM, support microphone inputs for voice AI applications.

The RA8P1 offers on-chip and external memory options for efficient, low-latency neural network processing. The MCU includes 2MB SRAM for storing intermediate activations or graphics framebuffers. 1MB of on-chip MRAM is also available for application code and storage of model weights or graphics assets. High-speed external memory interfaces are available for larger models. SIP options with 4MB or 8MB of external Flash in a single package are also available for more demanding AI applications.