Atmel has announced the availability of its 32-bit AT32UC3L AVR32 microcontroller with picoPower low-power technology and embedded capacitive touch controller peripheral.
The AT32UC3L is claimed to be the industry’s lowest-power 32-bit MCU with less than 0,48 mW/MHz in active mode executing real-life applications.
picoPower technology enables the new MCU to operate on less than 1,5 μA with the 32 kHz realtime clock active, and below 100 nA with all oscillators stopped. The device features Atmel’s 1,6 V technology, which keeps the device fully operational in systems with supply voltage ranging from 1,62 to 3,60 V.
The built in capacitive touch peripheral supports capacitive touch buttons and sliders, and the hardware support enables the addition of capacitive touch to the application with no additional software overhead. The capacitive touch hardware also allows the microcontroller to wake up from sleep on touch. Atmel’s QTouch technology provides a robust touch solution with a high signal to noise ratio that improves the system’s design margin, increases EMC performance and raises ESD tolerance. It is suitable for applications where reliability is required, such as consumer user interfaces, industrial and automotive applications and those where high moisture levels are present.
The AT32UC3L also includes a brand new Flash security technology named FlashVault. FlashVault allows the on-chip Flash to be partially programmed and locked, creating secure on-chip storage for secret code and software intellectual property. Code stored in the FlashVault will execute as normal, but cannot be read, copied or debugged. This allows a device with FlashVault code protection to carry a piece of valuable software such as a math library or an encryption algorithm from a trusted location to a potentially untrustworthy partner where the rest of the source code can be developed, debugged and programmed.
The new device introduces Atmel’s Peripheral Event System for the first time on a 32-bit microcontroller. This system allows peripherals to send signals (events) directly to other peripherals without involving the CPU. By offloading to the peripheral event system the repetitive task of forwarding these events, the CPU reduces the time-consuming handling of interrupts. This frees up more time for the CPU to handle other tasks in the application, and often allows the CPU to remain longer in one of the AVR32’s many energy saving sleep modes.
The UC3L has a state-of-the art clock system with clock failure protection, frequency meter, realtime clock with calendar mode, a precision crystal oscillator tuner and accurate digital frequency locked loop. The peripherals include a 9-channel 12-bit ADC and 8-channel analog comparator, as well as an 8-bit PWM output on every I/O pin.
Atmel’s AVR32 UC3L is supported by the AVR32 Studio integrated development environment used for the AVR32 product line. It is available free of charge on Atmel’s website. IAR’s Embedded Workbench also supports AVR32 devices. Debugging tools include Atmel’s AVRONE, STK 600 Starter Kit, and JTAGICE mkII on-chip debugger.
For more information contact EBV Electrolink, +27 (0)21 402 1940, [email protected], www.ebv.com
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