IoT applications need to sense a variety of information and securely send all of that data to the cloud. IoT Edge devices require higher performance with lower power consumption. At the same time, it is important to ensure security to prevent the leakage of information.
The newly released RL78/G23 is the perfect microcontroller (MCU) to satisfy these trends. The RL78/G23 operates with 30% lower power consumption than the conventional RL78 MCUs, which have been well-received for their low power consumption performance.
Figure 1. RL78/G23’s Power Consumption is 30% Lower than RL78/G13 (at CPU Run Mode)
The main reason for achieving lower power consumption is not just due to the adoption of the new process to generate low power consumption but is also due to the fast wake-up of the high-speed on-chip oscillator, the built-in medium-speed on-chip oscillator, and the built-in SNOOZE mode sequencer. The biggest contributing factor out of these is the built-in SNOOZE mode sequencer.
Conventional products also support SNOOZE mode, but there have been limitations on peripheral functions that could run without running the CPU. The SNOOZE mode sequencer extends the peripheral functions that can operate during SNOOZE mode to further reduce the power consumption of the system.
Figure 2. SNOOZE Mode Comparison between Conventional RL78 MCU and RL78/G23
It is also important, as mentioned above, to ensure security. The RL78/G23 utilizes an AES library to prevent spoofing. In addition, it also achieves safe rewriting with boot swap and flash shield window functions, and program startup from a safely secured area by disabling rewriting boot cluster 0. These enhanced security features also support secure updates and secure boot to prevent spoofing.
Figure 3. Security Functions of RL78/G23
In addition to the features described here, as shown in the following block diagram, the RL78/G23 is equipped with peripheral functions that satisfy the trends of IoT Edge devices, and it is expected to be used for various applications such as sensor nodes, home appliances, battery-powered devices, etc.
Figure 4. RL78/G23 Block Diagram
More information on the RL78/G23 microcontroller.