Welcome to the R8C Family overview training module, one of several online interactive learning courses covering the popular Renesas high-performance MCU product lines for cost sensitive 8-bit embedded systems. The material presented here bridges the gap between the basic technical information in a product brief and the detailed data in a hardware manual. This module discusses the main design needs of engineers developing embedded systems and introduces the R8C Family of MCUs that address those requirements for 8-bit applications. It describes how these low-cost devices fit into the extensive range of Renesas products now, and discusses key benefits these versatile solutions provide to facilitate successful system designs. Finally, this course will show how this product line will evolve in the future. Other R8C Family courses are available that provide more details about CPU architecture, specific products, and on-chip peripheral functions.