Renesas RZ/T2N combines motor control, Ethernet and Linux processing

Renesas Electronics has introduced the RZ/T2N, a 64-bit microprocessor that combines high-precision real-time motor control, industrial Ethernet and application processing on a single chip. The device can act as either a network controller or a device, which Renesas says allows articulated robots, multi-axis servos and programmable logic controllers to be developed on one platform with designs reused across products.

The RZ/T2N has dual Arm Cortex-A55 cores running up to 1.2 GHz for application processing and two Cortex-R52 cores running up to 800 MHz for real-time processing. It supports the major industrial Ethernet protocols EtherCAT, PROFINET RT/IRT and EtherNet/IP, combined with Time-Sensitive Networking for time-synchronised industrial network communication. Renesas notes that equipment such as multi-axis servo drives and PLCs has traditionally needed multiple chips to cover these functions, which the RZ/T2N integrates on a single device.

Motor control and encoder interfaces

Each Cortex-R52 core has 576 KB of tightly coupled memory with ECC, which Renesas says minimises execution-time fluctuation for high-precision motor control. The MPU integrates motor control peripherals for up to four axes, intended to enable single-chip motor control for industrial robots such as SCARA and delta robots. Encoder interfaces provide two channels per axis and 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.

Networking and security

The RZ/T2N includes three Gigabit Ethernet MACs, an Ethernet switch and an EtherCAT SubDevice Controller, allowing industrial Ethernet to be implemented in both controller and device applications without external communication ICs. It supports redundancy protocols including High-availability Seamless Redundancy, Parallel Redundancy Protocol and Frame Replication and Elimination for Reliability. Security features include a cryptographic library, secure boot, secure firmware update and Arm TrustZone.

Additional features include ECC protection across CPU TCM, cache, on-chip SRAM and DDR memory, support for 16-bit LPDDR4-1600 with on-the-fly decryption and encryption, and a common Linux package and Flexible Software Package shared across the RZ/T2x and RZ/N2x series. Renesas also provides verified sample programs for industrial Ethernet and encoder interfaces, and sample programs for multi-axis motor control using its evaluation boards. Functional safety software solutions, already proven on the RZ/T2x and RZ/N2x series, are planned for availability in the second half of 2027.

Hari Pendurty, vice president of the EP Edge AI and Application Processors Business Division at Renesas, said: "Industrial equipment designers must balance competing requirements: functionality and performance on one hand, footprint and cost on the other. The RZ/T2N solves this challenge by consolidating the essential functions onto a single chip. Combined with our scalable product portfolio, the RZ/T2N gives customers the flexibility to scale their designs for next-generation industrial automation."

Renesas states that the RZ/T2N and its evaluation board are available now, and the device will be demonstrated at electronica 2026 in Munich from 10 to 13 November.