TOKYO, Japan, QUEBEC, Qc., and SAN DIEGO, Calif, March 14, 2012 — Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, Ariane Controls, its powerline communications partner, and Grid2Home, its Smart Energy Profile Partner, today announced the availability of the SE-CPM evaluation and development platform for communication between Electric Vehicles (EV) and Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE). The platform is based on Renesas' V850 family of microcontrollers (MCUs), the most widely used MCU family in the automotive industry.
As EVs become more common, it will be important to charge them in a controlled and smart manner to minimize disruption to the electric grid, and to balance the load on the grid as much as possible. This requires communication to be established between the car and the charger and between the car and the utility (via the charger and the meter). The new SE-CPM platform pairs Renesas' V850 MCUs with Ariane Controls PLM-1 core and Grid2Home SE2.0 software to facilitate this communication.
In addition, for vehicle authentication and billing purposes, communication must be established with the utility company. With this platform, the EVSE can act as a translator moving the smart energy messages to the home area network (HAN) to the meter. An important benefit to the smart energy communication between the utility and the car is that the car can be used as an energy source during outage or extreme load conditions.
“The SE-CPM can transport either Smart Energy Profile 2.0 messages or J2847 DC Charging messages,” said Mario Lepage, head of automotive development at Ariane Controls. “It has all the features offered on our PLM-1, but at a 1.9MHz frequency, so it is optimized for communications on the control pilot line of the standardized J1772™ connectors used by the electric cars. With it, we can offer the automakers and the charging stations manufacturers a development platform for them to continue testing and evaluation of potential communication means for next-generation electric transportation.”
This solution is a key proof point of Renesas' commitment to developing technologies that will allow people to interact with their electronics more efficiently, more conveniently, more safely and with greater intelligence and intuition. Collectively, the real-world, human-to-machine interfaces that Renesas enables, along with its partners, result in smart societies that are better connected, use less power, fewer resources, and improve overall quality of life.
“With our partners at Ariane Controls and Grid2Home, we can provide a complete, low-cost solution running SEP 2.0 based on our 32-bit V850 MCU”, said Hiroaki Kaneko, General Manager of Automotive Systems Division, Marketing Unit, Renesas Electronics Corporation. “This is aligned with the Renesas goal of providing full solutions to customers and furthering our ‘Smart Society’ mission. Activities are underway to integrate Ariane IP and associated analog circuits within Renesas MCU silicon in the near future to increase integration and reduce the number of peripheral components required to implement a system.”
Rich Scholer, the chairman of the SAE Communication Task Force said, “This platform will help us collect data, as we continue our evaluation of the needed communication paths between EV and EVSEs to establish the new SAE standard for this communication.”
“Through the collaboration between Renesas and Grid2Home, we provide a solution for OEMs looking to design and evaluate the EV charging protocols”, said Rick Kornfeld, CEO of Grid2Home, “We are pleased to successfully demonstrate our G2H-SE2 Software with Renesas' Smart-Energy SE-CPM reference platform”.
Pricing and Availability
Evaluation systems are available now with the Smart Energy Profile 2.0 stack. Please contact Mario Lepage for more details at [email protected]
More Information
Complete information on Renesas' V850 MCU can be found at http://www.renesas.com/products/mpumcu/v850/index.jsp
About Renesas Electronics Corporation
Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) delivers trusted embedded design innovation with complete semiconductor solutions that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices to enhance the way people work and live. A global leader in microcontrollers, analog, power and SoC products, Renesas provides comprehensive solutions for a broad range of automotive, industrial, infrastructure, and IoT applications that help shape a limitless future. Learn more at renesas.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
About Grid2Home
Grid2Home is a communications software company at the forefront of Smart Grid connectivity technologies. Used across a range of devices such as smart meters, appliances and electric vehicles, the standards-compliant G2H-SE2 Software is portable across all major semiconductor platforms and physical layers including 802.15.4, 802.15.4g, 802.11 and Power Line Communications, allowing maximum product development flexibility and easy integration for Smart Grid device manufacturers. Active in driving Smart Energy Profile (SEP 2) communications standards for the Home Area Network (HAN), the Grid2Home management team and board of directors bring an unmatched combination of business savvy and communications protocol expertise to the fast-growing Smart Grid market. For more information see www.grid2home.com
About Ariane Controls
Ariane Controls is a powerline communication (PLC) technology developer offering highly differentiated networking solutions. With its open and collaborative approach, Ariane Controls provides its partners and customers with the least expensive, most reliable narrowband PLC solution for residential, commercial and industrial building automation and Smart Energy. Learn more at www.arianecontrols.com
The content in the press release, including, but not limited to, product prices and specifications, is based on the information as of the date indicated on the document, but may be subject to change without prior notice.