It has been almost 2 years since the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic that affects all people worldwide. Since then, a countless number of exhibitions were canceled or innovatively transformed to a virtual event due to the pandemic. While we are getting used to the New Normal, I think many of us would miss the joy of visiting an “offline” exhibition and having in-person discussions. This year, with the decline in the infection growth rate due to higher vaccination rate, ET & IoT Expo 2021 were able to hold the event in both online and offline styles with preventive measures. Our RX MCU strategic partners presented many of the RX MCU solutions. I took the advantage of the offline exhibition and visited their booths personally.
The first booth I visited was from Tachibana Eletech Coo., LTD, the partner with whom we have been collaborating for years. This time, they brought 2 RX-based solution demos to the ET & IoT Expo 2021. The first was a wireless communication solution using Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 based on the RX23W MCU. Sensor data, for example the air quality rating from the Renesas ZMOD4410 Indoor Air Quality sensor, was sent wirelessly via the RX23W BLE to the workstation for monitoring and analyzing. Tachibana didn’t only just provide the RX23W and ZMOD4410 sensing solution but also many other Renesas MCUs and sensors that could be optimized for monitoring system. Another interesting demo was the cloud solution. In addition to uploading various sensor data to the cloud via wireless communication, it also presents the ability to remotely control a motor’s operation, update firmware Over-The-Air, and display motor parameters on an LCD screen. All of these functions and solutions are powered by the RX MCU and are available for all users.
The next booth that I visited was CRI Middleware, a leading provider of audio and video solutions for the gaming industry. Over the last few years, we have been collaborating, utilizing the expertise of CRI in the graphic field and taking the advantage of our on-chip graphic controller in the RX MCU, to develop a graphical development tool called Aeropoint GUI for RX. With the help of this tool, users can easily design their own graphic UI on Microsoft PowerPoint and port it into the RX65N or RX72N Envision board to test without the need for programming and coding. It significantly lowers the barrier of expertise requirement for the newbie and reduces the development time for graphic UI designers.
Last but not least on my list, the partner that I would like to introduce in this article is Grape Systems. In the exhibition, Grape Systems presented their cloud solution, Azure RTOS Solution, not only for RX but also for other Renesas MCUs and MPUs. With the increasing adoption of the Microsoft Azure cloud services, we will continue working closely together to support customers in a timely manner. If you happened to stop by their booth, the RX cloud solution flyer was there to be given to you with an overview of our solution. Their staff are friendly and happy to explain to you in detail.
It was a joyful day for me, and I think it would be the same for other visitors as well. Even though the exhibition was scaled down compared to what it used to be in the past, I felt like it was a totally new experience visiting an exhibition this time. I am looking forward to the next ET & IoT Expo 2022 with more new RX solutions coming.
Please refer to our RX solution websites for more information.