Renesas Unveils First ASi‑5 ASSP, Setting New Benchmark for Industrial Automation

Renesas has announced the industry‑first ASi‑5 ASSP, a fully compatible solution that builds on the success of the ASi‑3 standard while delivering unprecedented performance for industrial automation.

The ASi‑5 platform achieves a cycle time of just 1.27 ms, supports cable lengths up to 200 m, and can host up to 96 slave devices per segment—substantially faster and more scalable than the 5 ms cycle time of ASi‑3.

Key advantages include:

• Up to 96 devices per segment with cycle times as low as 1.2 ms and sub‑10 ns jitter, compared to 5 ms on ASi‑3.
• Support for 200 m cable length and 16 data bits per transport channel.
• Advanced diagnostics and event handling aligned with Industry 4.0 requirements.
• Full backward compatibility with existing ASi‑3 equipment.
• Robust electromagnetic interference protection.
• Fully verified, field‑proven firmware that simplifies implementation and reduces design risk.

The ASI4U‑V5 ASSP offers a complete, ready‑to‑deploy solution with a firmware stack that has passed rigorous verification. It supports all bus topologies—line, star, and tree—and integrates seamlessly with industrial protocols such as IO‑Link and HART.

Figure. Main interfaces and application examples. (Source: Renesas)

Reference samples of the ASi‑5 ASSP are now available, with mass production slated to begin in March 2020.