Renesas Electronics Kicks Off RL78 Green Energy Challenge

Dusseldorf, March 27, 2012 - To spur embedded design creativity and innovation in the area of green energy, Renesas Electronics today launched the RL78 Green Energy Challenge, a global design contest featuring the RL78 microcontrollers (MCUs) and a robust software support environment provided by Renesas Electronics and its Alliance Partner community. The Renesas RL78 Green Energy Challenge provides an open, creative environment in which embedded engineers can showcase their skill in developing green energy designs in areas such as energy harvesting, low power, metering, monitoring and control systems. The contest begins March 26, 2012 and ends August 31, 2012. Winners will be announced at the Renesas DevCon in October in Anaheim, Calif.

The RL78 Green Energy Challenge is presented by Renesas Electronics in partnership with Circuit Cellar Magazine and Elektor Magazine. The design contest prizes are sponsored by Renesas Electronics along with partners Analog Devices, CMX Systems, Exosite, GainSpan Corp., IAR Systems, Micrium, NDK Crystals, Okaya Electric Industries Co. Ltd., and Total Phase, Inc.

“As embedded systems become more connected, Renesas Electronics is enabling new ways to gather data, manage resources, make intelligent decisions and interact with the world around us,” said Mohammed Dogar, Product Marketing Manager, Industrial & Distribution Business Unit at Renesas Electronics Europe. “We’re committed to our vision of a ‘Smart Society’ where electronic systems use less power, are more intuitive and improve overall quality of life. In the RL78 Green Energy Challenge, we’re looking for designs that define the essence of Green Energy, and inspire others to stand up and do the same.”

Enter to Win Your Share of $20,000 in Cash Prizes

Renesas will provide a RL78 Renesas Demonstration Kit (RDK) to up to 780 contestants who provide a qualifying abstract related to green energy. The use of the RDK is encouraged but not required. The contest will be coordinated across North America, Brazil, Europe and Asia. To join the competition, register at www.circuitcellar.com/RenesasRL78Challenge beginning from March 26th, 2012.

Renesas Electronics America will award the following prizes: First place, $8,000, plus a trip to Renesas DevCon 2012; Second place, $5,000; Third place $2,000; and five honorable mentions receiving $500 each. Renesas and partners will also have weekly drawing for prizes such as books, t-shirts, software and hardware solutions. Participating partners will also present their own hardware and software prize awards, based on criteria for their respective prizes. Details of the prizes and judging criteria can be found on the contest page.

Judges will select the winning green energy designs based on a scoring of technical merit, design originality, usefulness, cost effectiveness, and documentation. Final judging and the winner selections will be announced during a special ceremony at the Renesas DevCon in October in Anaheim, California.

About the RL78G13 RDK

The Renesas Demonstration Kit (RDK) for RL78/G13 is an evaluation and demonstration tool for Renesas RL78/G13 MCUs. The goal is to provide the user with a powerful debug and demonstration platform targeted at common applications. To aid in the evaluation of the RL78 family of microcontrollers, Renesas includes IAR's Embedded Workbench Kickstart Edition for the RL78. This full-featured tool suite allows for up to 16KB of application code to be implemented on the RL78G13 RDK. To facilitate RDK programming, the IAR tools support the Renesas TK Debugger, which is on-board the RL78G13 RDK. For more information, visit: http://www.renesas.com/rdkrl78g13

About Circuit Cellar and Elektor Magazines

Circuit Cellar and Elektor have been providing electrical engineers with insightful analysis, hands-on project articles and in-depth product reviews for fifty years. Circuit Cellar delivers everything professional engineers need to thrive and excel in the ever-evolving world of embedded systems while Elektor provides an interactive multimedia platform for everyone with an interest in electronics. Find out more by visiting www.circuitcellar.com and www.elektor.com.

About Renesas Electronics Europe

Renesas delivers trusted embedded design innovation with complete semiconductor solutions that enable billions of connected, intelligent devices to enhance the way people work and live – securely and safely. As the number one global supplier of microcontrollers, and a leader in A&P and SoC products, Renesas provides the expertise, quality, and comprehensive solutions for a broad range of Automotive, Industrial, Home Electronics (HE), Office Automation (OA) and Information Communication Technology (ICT) applications to help shape a limitless future.

Renesas Electronics Corporation was established in 2010 and is headquartered in Japan.With over 800 hardware and software alliance partners worldwide, it has the industry’s largest local support network. Renesas Electronics’ European structure is comprised of three business units – the Automotive, the Broad-based and the Industrial Solution Business Unit.

Further information about Renesas Electronics Europe is available at www.renesas.com

Renesas Electronics Europe is also on social media at http://twitter.com/Renesas_Europe, http://facebook.com/RenesasEurope and http://youtube.com/RenesasPresents.

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.