MIKROE has entered into a multi-year embedded development tool support agreement with Renesas Electronics Corporation, strengthening collaboration between the two companies and expanding access to Renesas’ microcontroller portfolio for developers worldwide.
As part of the agreement, MIKROE will provide development tool support for more than 500 widely used Renesas microcontrollers. The support will also extend to future Renesas MCU families as they are introduced. The initiative is designed to reduce the time gap between device announcements and practical development access.
A central element of the partnership is the launch of a dedicated Planet Debug remote board farm for Renesas devices. The platform enables developers to program and debug real Renesas hardware remotely. The physical boards are hosted by MIKROE and accessed over the internet, removing the need for developers to purchase or wait for evaluation kits.
MIKROE said this is the first Planet Debug deployment focused exclusively on Renesas microcontrollers. The move reflects a broader industry shift toward remote development environments and hardware-as-a-service models. These approaches are increasingly seen as a way to lower entry barriers and speed up product development cycles.
All development support will be delivered through MIKROE’s NECTO Studio, a multi-architectural integrated development environment. NECTO provides a unified platform for coding, programming, and debugging across multiple architectures. It is designed to simplify workflows for embedded developers working with diverse device families.
The agreement also includes access to MIKROE’s Click board ecosystem. Click boards are compact, function-specific add-on modules used for rapid prototyping. They are built around the open-source mikroBUS socket standard, allowing compatibility across different host platforms and vendors. The boards are supported by mikroSDK, an open-source library collection aimed at accelerating application development.
MIKROE Chief Executive Officer Neb Matic said the collaboration removes traditional constraints faced by developers at early stages of design. He noted that engineers can start working with supported Renesas MCUs immediately by downloading NECTO Studio, without waiting for physical hardware to arrive.
The Planet Debug platform is already operational in Europe and the Americas. Developers can reserve free time slots to access remotely hosted Renesas boards. Each board can be configured to match specific project requirements. Programming and debugging are carried out through NECTO Studio using the CODEGRIP Wi-Fi debugger.
Renesas said the partnership supports its goal of shortening development timelines for customers. Mohammed Dogar, Vice President of Embedded Processing Marketing at Renesas, said that immediate access to development tools and hardware helps reduce both cost and time to market. He added that continuous board availability and access to code examples can significantly improve development efficiency.
