Atmel Announces Four New LCD AVR Microcontrollers

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Atmel(R) Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML), a global leader in the development and fabrication of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced today four new members of the LCD AVR(R) Flash Microcontroller family. The mega329, 649, 3290 and 6490 are designed to address the requirements of portable and battery operated applications like home appliance controllers, Audio/Video equipment and health care products. The mega329 and 649 have an integrated 100-segment LCD controller and are housed in a 64-pin package while the mega3290 and 6490 have a 160-segment LCD controller and are available in a 100-pin package.

The LCD AVR family of Flash microcontrollers consumes only 300 micro amps at an operating frequency of 1 MHz and has an unrivalled throughput of 2 MIPS per milliwatt. In the Power-down mode all peripherals, with the exception of external interrupts, are turned off and power consumption drops to 100 nano amps. These parts are extremely responsive to external events in both active and power down modes. Interrupts on up to 18 inputs can wake the part from a power down mode in less than one microsecond, which is a 6X improvement.

The LCD AVR Family helps design engineers reduce development costs, design time and ultimately production cost. These devices combine a highly code-efficient and powerful microcontroller with a low power Flash memory technology.

"All LCD AVR devices have short wake-up times from low power modes with an operating range from 1.8 to 5.5Volts. They are the best choice for applications requiring high integration and low power consumption. To further reduce power consumption, the CPU clock is controlled by software," said Odd Jostein Svendsli, Atmel's AVR Marketing Manager. "The designer can select a high clock frequency for computation intensive operations and slow the clock to 32 kHz or less to perform simple control functions. This reduces power consumption to 20 micro amps in active mode. This means products designed with the LCD AVR Family will be able to run up to 10 times longer on the equivalent battery power when compared to traditional microcontroller solutions," he added.

Evaluation and debug tools are available now. The STK502 and STK504 expansion modules cost $99 and $119 respectively. When combined with the STK500 starter kit which is available at $79, they offer all the necessary hardware to evaluate programs and test the capabilities of the LCD AVR family. The STK502 and STK504 include a temperature monitoring application example with C-code drivers for all peripherals including the LCD-driver. The starter kit enables designers to develop and test their code before the hardware design is completed which reduces development time. Additionally an evaluation kit is available at $19 and provides an implementation example demonstrating how a system can be developed using minimum external components and allowing very flexible software updates using an integrated bootloader.

The mega329 and 3290 are available today. The 10ku price is $4.50 and $4.95 respectively. The mega649 and 6490 will be available in 1Q05 and priced at $5.25 and $5.75 with volume production expected in 2H 2005.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions. Focused on consumer, industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets, Atmel ICs can be found Everywhere You Are(SM).

NOTE: Atmel(R), logo and combinations thereof, AVR(R), are registered trademarks, and Everywhere You AreSM is the trademark of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

Information

Information on Atmel's LCD AVR products can be retrieved at: http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/devices.asp?family_id=607 .

     Press Contacts
     Philippe Faure, Marketing Communication Manager - Microcontrollers
     Tel:  +33 2 40 18 18 87, Email:  philippe.faure@nto.atmel.com

     Veronique Sablereau, Corporate Communications Manager - Europe
     Tel:  +33 1 30 60 70 68, Email:  veronique.sablereau@atmel.com

     Clive Over, Director of Press Relations - USA and Asia
     Tel:  +1 408 451 2855, Email:  cliveover@atmel.com

CONTACT: Philippe Faure, Marketing Communication Manager -
Microcontrollers, +33 2 40 18 18 87, or philippe.faure@nto.atmel.com; or
Veronique Sablereau, Corporate Communications Manager - Europe,
+33 1 30 60 70 68, or veronique.sablereau@atmel.com; or Clive Over, Director
of Press Relations - USA and Asia, +1-408-451-2855, or cliveover@atmel.com,
all of Atmel Corporation

Web site: http://www.atmel.com/