Renesas Introduces RZ/T2N MPU with Four-Axis Motor Control and Industrial Ethernet

Renesas Electronics has introduced the RZ/T2N, a 64-bit microprocessor (MPU) that combines high-precision real-time motor control, industrial Ethernet and application processing on a single chip. The device is designed for articulated robots, multi-axis servos and programmable logic controllers (PLCs), serving as either a network controller or a device.

The RZ/T2N has dual Arm Cortex-A55 cores operating at up to 1.2 GHz for application processing and two Cortex-R52 cores operating at up to 800 MHz for real-time processing. It supports industrial Ethernet protocols including EtherCAT, PROFINET RT/IRT and EtherNet/IP, together with Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN).

Four-Axis Motor Control and Processing

Each Cortex-R52 core has 576 KB of tightly coupled memory (TCM) with ECC protection. This minimizes execution-time fluctuation and supports high-precision motor control.

The RZ/T2N also integrates motor control peripherals for up to four axes, enabling single-chip motor control for industrial robots such as SCARA and delta robots.

Encoder interfaces, used to measure parameters such as motor rotation angle, provide two channels per axis. They support Tamagawa T-Format, HIPERFACE DSL, A-format, EnDat 2.2 and BiSS C, as well as the newer EnDat 3 and BiSS Line protocols.

Industrial Ethernet and Network Redundancy

The RZ/T2N has three Gigabit Ethernet MACs (GMACs), an Ethernet switch and an EtherCAT SubDevice Controller (ESC). This allows designers to implement industrial Ethernet in both controller and device applications without external communication ICs.

The device also supports redundancy protocols, including High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR), Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) and Frame Replication and Elimination for Reliability (FRER).

Additional features include ECC protection across CPU memory, on-chip SRAM and DDR memory, support for 16-bit LPDDR4-1600 with on-the-fly encryption and decryption, secure boot, secure firmware updates and Arm TrustZone.

Renesas provides a common Linux package and Flexible Software Package (FSP) across its RZ/T2x and RZ/N2x series, along with sample programs for industrial Ethernet, encoder interfaces and multi-axis motor control.

The RZ/T2N MPU and its evaluation board are available now. Functional safety software solutions are planned for the second half of 2027.

Learn more and read the original announcement at renesas.com.

Technology Overview

The Renesas RZ/T2N is a 64-bit industrial MPU integrating application processing, real-time motor control for up to four axes and industrial Ethernet networking. It combines dual Arm Cortex-A55 cores running at up to 1.2 GHz with two Cortex-R52 cores running at up to 800 MHz. The device supports EtherCAT, PROFINET RT/IRT, EtherNet/IP and TSN, with integrated Ethernet MACs, an Ethernet switch and encoder interfaces for industrial robotics, servo drives and PLCs.

FAQs

How many motor axes can the Renesas RZ/T2N control?

The RZ/T2N integrates motor control peripherals for up to four axes. It provides two encoder interface channels per axis, supporting protocols including EnDat 2.2, EnDat 3, BiSS C, BiSS Line and HIPERFACE DSL.

Which industrial Ethernet protocols does the RZ/T2N support?

The MPU supports EtherCAT, PROFINET RT/IRT and EtherNet/IP, together with Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN). It includes three Gigabit Ethernet MACs, an Ethernet switch and an EtherCAT SubDevice Controller.

What processors are integrated into the RZ/T2N?

The RZ/T2N combines two Arm Cortex-A55 cores running at up to 1.2 GHz for application processing and two Cortex-R52 cores running at up to 800 MHz for real-time control. Each Cortex-R52 core has 576 KB of tightly coupled memory with ECC protection.