Renesas is the first company to demonstrate working chips based on the Arm Cortex-M85 processor with Arm’s Helium hardware accelerator. Such a core enables this microcontroller to do high-demand AI/ML tasks that would have previously been done using microprocessors. This, combined with the signature deterministic operation, short interrupt response time, and state-of-the-art low-power support of Cortex-M, makes Renesas’ most advanced MCU a great fit for demanding IoT use cases that require the highest compute performance and DSP or ML capability. Additionally, the cost of the device is much lower than the MPUs that would usually be deployed for similar tasks, allowing this sort of AI/ML capability into previously untapped markets.
Along with high-performance processing, the Cortex-M85 core supports Arm TrustZone® technology for protection of secure assets. Renesas’ integrated cryptographic engine, immutable storage, key management, and tamper protection against DPA/SPA side-channel attacks ensures that this MCU is an extremely secure device.
Little information on the full specification of these devices is publicly available at this stage, but a demonstration of the Cortex-M85 MCU was on display at Embedded World 2023 as part of an AI visual recognition/tracking system. The product is expected to come to market by the beginning of 2024 and will enable many new applications where MCUs are not yet powerful enough to be deployed as the heart of the end product. If you would like to learn more, check out our interview with Renesas, or use the form below to apply to be first in line to evaluate the technology.
