Renesas Electronics Corporation announced the industry's first general-purpose 32-bit RISC-V-based microcontrollers (MCUs) built with an internally developed CPU core. While many MCU providers have recently joined investment alliances to advance the development of RISC-V products, Renesas has already designed and tested a new RISC-V core independently, which is now implemented in a commercial product and available globally. The new, R9A02G021 group of MCUs provides embedded systems designers a clear path to developing a wide range of power-conscious, cost-sensitive applications based on the open-source instruction set architecture (ISA).

While most of today's RISC-V solutions target specific applications, the R9A02G022 group MCUs are designed to serve multiple end markets, such as IoT sensors, consumer electronics, medical devices, small appliances and industrial systems. Similar to existing general-purpose MCUs, designers will have access to a full-scale development environment for the R9A02G021, provided by Renesas and its extensive network of toolchain partners. This will allow them to significantly reduce costs, engineering resources and development time. As an early adopter of RISC-V, Renesas has a rich offering of RISC-V application-specific products, including its 32-bit voice-control and motor-control ASSP devices and RZ/Five 64-bit general purpose microprocessors (MPUs), which were built on CPU cores developed by Andes Technology Corp.

The R9A02G021 Group represents the first generation of general- purpose MCUs based on the internally developed RISC-V core by Renesas that will roll out over the next several years. With Renesas introducing full commercial availability of a RISC-V multimarket MCU to its diverse MCU portfolio, as well as much needed support from well recognized industry standard tools suppliers, the RISC-V market is poised to finally start accelerating growth. As other leading vendors follow Renesas' example, RISC-V should approach 10% of the overall MCU market by the end of 2029 with significant growth potential beyond.

Renesas has the broadest portfolio of 8-, 16- and 32-bit devices, delivering unmatched quality and efficiency with exceptional performance. As a trusted supplier, Renesas has decades of experience designing smart, secure MCUs, backed by a dual-source production model, the industry's most advanced MCU process technology and a vast network of more than 250 ecosystem partners.