Chip giant Renesas has created a whole new line of high-end microprocessors that sit at the tippy top of the company’s product range.
In a reversal of normal hardware protocol, Renesas is making a big deal about the software support for its new chips, with particular emphasis on the Linux port. It is a differentiating feature, just not one that most CPU companies talk about.
The new RZ/G2 processor family comes bundled with Linux that’s supported entirely by Renesas (as opposed to community support) and that comes with a 10-year guarantee of availability, support, and updates. Your hardware supplier is also your OS supplier – and your sole source of technical assistance, whether your problem is with NMIs or APIs.
The Linux in question comes from the new Civil Infrastructure Platform (CIP) foundation. CIP is a subgroup under the nonprofit Linux Foundation that aims to define, control, distribute, and support a version of Linux that users can rely upon to be stable and long-lived. As the name implies, their work is aimed specifically at civil-infrastructure users (power generation, police, fire, wastewater management, and the like) to provide them with “industrial-grade components that require super long-term maintenance.”
Read more at EE Journal.