Renesas Electronics

"Renesas" is an invented name and a contraction of RENaissance SEmiconductor for Advanced Solutions.[5]

Renesas Electronics started operation in April 2010, through the integration of NEC Electronics Corporation and Renesas Technology Corporation. NEC Electronics was established in November 2002 by a spin-off of the semiconductor operations of NEC.[6][7] Renesas Technology was established on April 1, 2003, as a joint venture of Hitachi, Ltd. (55%) and Mitsubishi Electric (45%).[8]

In April 2009, Renesas Technology and NEC Electronics reached a basic agreement to merge by around April 2010. On April 1, 2010 NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology merged, forming Renesas Electronics which became the fourth largest semiconductor company according to iSuppli published data.[9]

In December 2010 Renesas Mobile Corporation (RMC) was created by integrating the Mobile Multimedia Business Unit of Renesas with the acquired Nokia Wireless Modem Business Unit.[10]

In 2011, Renesas Electronics was adversely affected by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami[11] and flooding in Thailand. In 2012, the company decided to restructure its business, including the sale and consolidation of its Japanese domestic plants, to become profitable.[12][13] In December 2012, INCJ, Japan’s government-backed fund, and several key clients decided to invest in the company. Through the investment, Renesas aimed to secure 150 billion yen as fresh capital by September 2013 and use it for realizing the Smart Society through investment in the microcontroller and Analog & Power semiconductor development, plant improvements, automotive and industrial semiconductor solutions and corporate acquisitions.

In September 2013, Broadcom Corporation acquired most of Renesas Mobile Communication.[14]

With the allotment of third-party shares to Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and 8 other companies in September 2013, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) became the largest shareholder.[15]

In the fiscal year ending March 2014, Renesas records its first net profit ever since it operated as Renesas Electronics Corporation in 2010.[16]

To achieve a profit-generating corporate structure, Renesas announced its new business direction and issued its corporate presentation titled "Reforming Renesas” in October 2013.[17]

In July 2014, the subsidiary Renesas Mobile Communication was consolidated, after the company had decided to withdraw from the 4G wireless business.[18]

In September 2016, Renesas announced that it would acquire Intersil Corporation for $3.2 billion.[19] In February 2017, Renesas completed the acquisition.[20]

In April 2017, Renesas unveiled in a self-driving demo car at a global developer conference that it will start delivering a new line of products for self-driving cars in December 2017 as it takes on global giants such as Intel Corp. The new technology acts as an onboard nerve center, coordinating and controlling vehicle functions.[21]

In September 2018, Renesas announced it had agreed to buy IDT for $6.7 billion.[22] In March 2019, Renesas completed the acquisition.[23]

Renesas Electronics' products include:

• Microcontrollers: RL78, RA, RX, Synergy, RE R8C, H8, 78K,
• Microprocessors: SuperH, R32C / M32C/ M16C, V850, M32R,RH850 etc. and the RZ family built on the ARM architecture[24][25])
• System LSIs (System on a Chip e.g. R-Car)
  • Analog and Power Management ICs
  • Memory
  • Optoelectronics
  • RF Devices
  • Sensors
  • Software and Tools
  • Aerospace and Harsh Environment ICs
  • Timing and Logic ICs
  • Discrete Power
  • Wireless Power
  • ASICs

The RX MCU family

RX is the family name for a range of 32-bit microcontrollers manufactured by Renesas Electronics. RX is an acronym for Renesas Xtreme.

The RX family was launched in 2009 by Renesas Technology with the first product range designated the RX600 series and targeting applications such as metering, motor control, human–machine interfaces (HMI), networking, and industrial automation. Since 2009 this MCU family range has been enlarged with a smaller variant the RX200 series and also through enhanced performance versions.

Key to the high performance of the microcontroller is the CISC architecture with high performance integrated flash memory enabling the central processing unit (CPU) to operate at very high frequency, 100 MHz, without requiring wait-states for the memory accesses resulting in performance up to 1.65 DMIPS/MHz.

The largest stockholders and their ownership ratio of Renesas are as follows as of December 31, 2018.[26][27][28]

At the end of September 2013, Renesas issued new shares through third-party allotment resulting in Innovation Network Corporation of Japan becoming the new largest shareholder and non-parental controlling shareholder.[29]

In early May 2012, NEC transferred part of its stake in Renesas to its employee pension trust. As a result, the NEC pension fund held 32.4 percent of Renesas while NEC had 3.0 percent.[30]

Renesas Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

• Front End Production Japan: Naka, Takasaki, Shiga, Saijo, Yamaguchi, Kawashiri
• Back End Production Japan: Yonezawa, Oita, Nishiki

• Renesas Electronics Microcontrollers
• Electronics Weekly: Renesas RX series microcontrollers – an overview
• Bloomberg: Renesas Electronics America Expands Its RX Microcontroller

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Renesas Electronics.

• Official website