Renesas Electronics Becomes First Semiconductor Supplier to Join Civil Infrastructure Platform Project to Accelerate Smart Industrial Devices

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, today announced that it has joined the Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) project. Launched in April 2016 as a cooperative project of the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports the dissemination of the Linux operating system (OS), the CIP provides a base layer for industrial-grade open source software (OSS, Note 1) for civil infrastructure systems. Starting with the RZ/G Series, Renesas plans to develop an embedded platform for industrial applications incorporating the industrial-grade Linux OS from the project into an embedded platform for industrial applications.

“As an active Gold Member of The Linux Foundation, Renesas has contributed to open source development as a Platinum Member of the Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) project,” said Mike Woster, Chief Operations Officer at The Linux Foundation. “Now, with the CIP project, Renesas will bring its industry-leading track record to bear on issues facing civil infrastructure and industrial devices, as well as develop an OSS that will form the foundation for highly reliable civil infrastructure systems.”

With standardization around the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industry 4.0, industrial devices are continually expanding with networking capabilities and multimedia functionalities such as video and graphics processing. Since the Linux OS supports a wide array of software for implementing these functions, an increasing number of system developers are considering switching to Linux from their current OS. Life cycle is another key consideration. When new devices are introduced in the industrial field, they are expected to remain in service for over a decade. System developers need an OSS base layer that provides high reliability, robust security, and long-term support.

Renesas considers the CIP project essential as it was launched to provide a base layer that will meet the growing customer needs. The project supports the “smart society” that Renesas promotes. By participating in the project as a semiconductor supplier, Renesas aims to substantially reduce additional development and maintenance burdens for system developers, as well as boost the reliability and real-time responsiveness of software for industrial devices.

Through its involvement in this initiative, Renesas plans to advance the CIP project’s activities that CIP promotes and help realize an OSS platform to support embedded devices for the industrial field. Starting with its RZ/G Series, Renesas plans to incorporate the industrial-grade Linux OS from the project into an embedded platform for industrial applications to provide support for the rapid development of highly reliable industrial devices.