AVR MICROCONTROLLERS
ATMEL's HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL AVR MCUs ARE MORE POPULAR THEN EVER.
They may have been around for some time now, but ATMEL's AVR controllers are selling in
larger quantities today than ever before. In fact, ATMEL places a major focus on the AVR
product line, and users everywhere will be happy to hear that the family will continue to
grow at a rapid pace.
AVR microcontrollers incorporate a very fast 8-bit RISC core that executes one assembler
instruction per clock cycle, as well as a 32-byte register file and a hardware multiplier
unit. Their integrated Flash (program) and EEprom (data) memory are in-application
self-programmable using a serial interface or, for ultimate ease, using a boot program.
Other controller features include Brown Out Detection, a 10-bit ADC, PWM, USART, timers,
SPI, TWI and numerous I/Os. The newest members of the AVR microcontroller family are
equipped with an LCD Controller (ATmega169), CAN interface (AT90CAN128) and additional
I/Os (ATmega165/325/3250). And the entire product family delivers high performance at a
low current consumption.
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For applications requiring even lower
currents, operating voltage can be dropped to as low as 1.8V.
The AVR chips are normally programmed in C or assembler language. No-fuss debugging is
performed via a JTAG interface for the ATmega chips and via on-chip debugWIRE for the
ATtiny models. For debugWIRE versions, communication with the chip is via the reset pin
only, which saves valuable I/O resources. Both interface types are supported by a very
cost-effective JTAG ICE2 tool, and ATMEL offers starter kits for all AVRs. One of the
essential differences between AVR architecture and that of older generation
microcontrollers is that the AVR core was specifically designed to efficiently execute C
code. As a result, these ATMEL chips save program memory space over legacy products.
As for the future, ATMEL plans to continue expanding its LCD AVRs (4x40 segments). Also in
the works are AVRs equipped with even more Flash memory and new models for the 8-pin,
14-pin and 20-pin market segment.
For more information, please contact:
Johannes Kornfehl, EXT 49
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