Renesas Electronics Corporation has introduced the RZ/T2N, a 64-bit microprocessor (MPU) combining high-precision real-time motor control for up to four axes, industrial Ethernet and application processing on one chip for robots and industrial equipment.
Equipment such as multi-axis servo drives and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) has traditionally used multiple chips for these functions. Renesas says the integration can reduce board area and system complexity, save board space and bill-of-materials cost, and shorten development time. The RZ/T2N can operate as either a network controller or a device, allowing designs for articulated robots, multi-axis servos and PLCs to be reused across products.
The MPU has dual 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 processing. It supports EtherCAT, PROFINET RT/IRT and EtherNet/IP, and combines with Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) to support time-synchronized industrial network communication.
Each Cortex-R52 core has 576 KB of tightly coupled memory (TCM) with ECC, which Renesas says minimizes execution-time fluctuation and delivers high-precision motor control. 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 EnDat 3 and BiSS Line protocols.
The RZ/T2N integrates three Gigabit Ethernet MACs (GMACs), an Ethernet switch and an EtherCAT SubDevice Controller (ESC), supporting industrial Ethernet in controller and device applications without external communication ICs. Its supported redundancy protocols include High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR), Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) and Frame Replication and Elimination for Reliability (FRER); security features include a cryptographic library, secure boot, secure firmware update and Arm TrustZone.
Additional features include ECC protection for CPU TCM and cache memory, on-chip SRAM and DDR memory; 16-bit LPDDR4-1600 memory support with on-the-fly decryption and encryption; a common Linux package and Flexible Software Package (FSP) across the RZ/T2x and RZ/N2x series; and verified sample programs for industrial Ethernet, encoder interfaces and multi-axis motor control. Functional safety software solutions proven on the RZ/T2x and RZ/N2x series are planned for 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.”
The RZ/T2N and its evaluation board are available as of November 5, 2026. Renesas will demonstrate the MPU at electronica 2026, November 10–13 in Munich, Germany, at Hall C5, Stand 479. More information is available at renesas.com/rzt2n.
