Atmel Launches Next-Generation Low-power 8-bit AVR MCUs

Since its initial launch in 2002, Atmel’s megaAVRs, the company’s most popular 8-bit AVR MCUs on the market today, can be found in hundreds of millions of applications. Made for engineers of all levels from the professional and established designers to the hobbyist, Do-it-Yourselfer (DIY) and Maker communities, the 8-bit megaAVR MCUs are ideal for applications in a variety of markets including automotive, industrial, consumer and white goods. Atmel’s next-generation megaAVRs deliver all the benefits of previous generations including a simple, easy-to-use interface for a seamless upgrade and binary compatibility with existing 8-bit megaAVR MCUs.

“With over 20 years of MCU experience, we are proud to launch our third generation of 8-bit megaAVR MCUs to the market today—a family that has been highly recognized by a variety of communities from the professional designers using our Atmel Studio ecosystem to the hobbyist and Maker in the AVR Freaks™ and Arduino communities,” said Oyvind Strom, sr. director of marketing of the microcontroller business unit, Atmel Corporation. “As the leader in the 8-bit MCU market, Atmel continues to add easy-to-use, innovative products to our broad portfolio of MCUs.”

Key Features for Atmel’s 8-bit megaAVR MCUs

• Simple, easy-to-use
• Low power
• Wide selection of development tools including free Atmel Studio IDE
• Extensive set of peripherals, including ADC, Analog Comparator, SPI, I2C and USART
• Single-cycle instructions running 1MIPS per MHz
• Designed for high-level languages with minimal code space
• Real-time performance with single cycle I/O access

New Features

• Unique ID for every device enabling a more secure device for IoT applications and wireless networks
• Improved accuracy of internal oscillators for UART serial communications
• Improved accuracy of internal voltage reference for better analog-to-digital conversion results

Development Kits and Ecosystem

To accelerate a developer’s design, Atmel offers an ultra-low cost Xplained Mini development platform that is available for only $8.88 USD in the Atmel Store and fully compatible with 8-bit megaAVR MCUs. The new boards can easily be connected to any Arduino board making it ideal for a variety of projects and prototypes using an Arduino board.

The megaAVR 8-bit MCUs are fully supported by Atmel’s development eco-system including Atmel Studio 6.2, the integrated development environment (IDE) for developing and debugging Atmel | SMART Cortex-M and Atmel AVR MCU-based applications. Atmel Studio 6.2 gives designers a seamless and easy-to-use environment to write, build, simulate, program and debug their applications to write, build, simulate, program and debug your applications written in C/C++ or assembly code using the integrated GCC compiler and AVR assembler. With Atmel’s broad portfolio of AVR products and easy-to-use development software, designers can quickly bring their 8-bit MCU to market. Additionally, designers have access to the company’s embedded software including the Atmel Software Framework and application notes, and the Atmel Gallery ‘app’ store.

Availability

The Atmel mega168PB, mega88PB and mega48PB are available in 32-pin QFN and QFP packages with additional devices available later this year. All devices are sampling now. Production quantities for the mega168PB devices are available now while the mega88PB and ATmega48PB devices are available in February 2015.