RX MCU Design Contest Demonstrates the Power of Partnerships with the RX Family's Extensive Ecosystem to Spur Global Innovation and Excellence

October 14, 2010

SANTA CLARA, Calif., October 14, 2010-- To spur embedded design creativity and competition, Renesas Electronics America Inc. launched the Renesas RX Design Contest, featuring the new RX family of 32-bit microcontrollers (MCUs) and a robust software support environment, provided by Renesas Electronics America and its Alliance Partner community, including CMX Systems, IAR Systems, Micrium, Micron Technology, SEGGER, Rowebots and TotalPhase. The Renesas RX Design Contest provides an open, creative environment in which embedded engineers can showcase their skills in any type of design using an RX MCU.

"As a leading worldwide semiconductor supplier, Renesas Electronics understands that design influence and support-on a global scale-are pivotal factors for success, particularly in the embedded world, and the Renesas RX Design Contest is one example of how we are embracing this challenge with our commitment to global innovation and excellence," said Rob Dautel, alliance and communities manager, Consumer & Industrial Business Unit, Renesas Electronics America. "The RX family of MCUs combines a unique architecture, superior performance/power balance and a comprehensive support ecosystem via our alliance partners, providing an ideal platform for designers to use as a launch pad for their Renesas RX Design Contest activities."

Starting October 13, 2010, to March 4, 2011, there will be 1,000 RX62N Renesas Demonstration Kits (RDKs) available for contestants. The use of the RDK is encouraged but not required. The contest will be coordinated across the North American, European and Asian regions. To join the competition, visit http://www.renesasrulz.com/rx-contest to register.

The design entries will be available on the Renesas RX Design Contest website for audience comments and voting. In addition to recognition for the overall "best" designs, the Renesas RX Design Contest will offer weekly challenges and prizes. Renesas Electronics America will award the top three winners: $5,000 (first place); $3,000 (second place); and $1,000 (third place); and five honorable mentions receiving $500 each. Selections will be based on a scoring of technical merit, design originality, usefulness, cost effectiveness, documentation and public voting. Participating Alliance Partners also will present their own prize awards, based on criteria for their respective prizes. Final judging and the winner selections will be announced during a special ceremony at Embedded Systems Conference Silicon Valley 2011.

About the RX62N RDK

The RX62N RDK integrates best-in-class products from several Renesas Electronics partners to create an extremely robust solution that helps reduce design and interoperability uncertainty for designers while delivering desired performance and time-to-market turnaround. Among the best-in-class components on the RDK board are devices from Analog Devices, Epson, Micron Technology, National Semiconductor, Okaya, SEGGER and TotalPhase.

About the RX Development Tools Environment

Since the introduction of the RX MCU family in 2009, Renesas Electronics has been steadily introducing new devices, features, tools and partnerships to expand the capabilities of the MCUs. Renesas Electronics supports its RX600 MCUs with a comprehensive proprietary hardware/software tool set and third parties. Renesas Electronics offers the popular High-Performance Embedded Workshop (HEW) integrated development environment (IDE). The HEW includes the RX-optimizing C/C++ compiler with integrated support for the low-cost E1 JTAG on-chip debugging tool, as well as the comprehensive E20 high-speed trace on-chip debugging tool. Third-party support for RTOS, middleware, communication protocol stacks, and color graphics is available from the global community of Renesas Electronics' partner vendors.

About Renesas Electronics America Inc.

Renesas Electronics America Inc., headquartered in Santa Clara, California, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), the world's number one supplier of microcontrollers and a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions including microcontrollers, SoC solutions, and a broad range of analog and power devices. In the Americas, Renesas Electronics America markets and sells industrial-type active-matrix LCD modules from NEC LCD Technologies, Ltd., a global leader in innovative display technologies. More information about the products offered by Renesas Electronics America can be found at www.renesas.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.

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