Atmel SAM4L Microcontrollers : Redefining Low Power

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

How much better would your designs be if power consumption was no longer a concern? Find out today with the SAM4L family of ARM® Cortex™-M4 processor-based microcontrollers (MCUs), which consume just one-third the power of currently available solutions. 

SAM4L MCUs redefine the power benchmark, delivering the lowest power in both active (90µA/MHz) and sleep modes (1.5µA with full random access memory (RAM) retention and 700nA in back-up mode). 

They are the most efficient MCUs available today, achieving up to 28 CoreMark™/mA using the IAR Embedded Workbench, version 6.40. In SAM4L MCUs, you also get the industry's shortest wake-up time at 1.5µs from deep-sleep mode. Just what you need for portable and battery-powered consumer, industrial and medical applications.

Bringing Atmel picoPower Technology to the ARM Platform :

The SAM4L family integrates Atmel's proprietary picoPower® technology, which is used in hundreds of millions of Atmel® AVR® MCUs in the market today. This patented picoPower ultra-low power technology ensures that devices are developed from the ground up - from transistor design to clocking options - to consume as little power as possible.

Fast wakeup and innovative power-saving features such as multiple regulators reduce the overall consumption even further. In addition, Atmel's SleepWalking technology allows the peripherals to make intelligent decisions and wake up the system upon qualifying events at the peripheral level. It's all about system intelligence and conserving energy. Simply put, the SAM4L MCU is your choice if you're looking for long battery life, without sacrificing performance.

Read the SAM4L Datasheet and check also other interesting topics from Atmel.

*by andreascy*

A Common Cause of Failure to Connect Atmel Studio 6 to Hardware

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Atmel® Studio 6 is the integrated development environment (IDE) for developing and debugging Atmel ARM® Cortex™-M and Atmel AVR® microcontroller (MCU) based applications. 

The Atmel Studio 6 IDE gives you a seamless and easy-to-use environment to write, build and debug your applications written in C/C++ or assembly code. 

Today we are going to look at some of the causes of common communication failure between Atmel Studio 6 and some of the Atmel development tools. 

Demonstrated on a JTAGICE 3 and the XMEGA-A3BU.

Read also :
Atmel XSence Touch Sensors : Super Flexible screens

*by andreascy*

Atmel XSense Touch Sensors : Super Flexible Screens

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Hey Googler! If you find this page useful please subscribe via email or via rss feed to stay updated. Be first in line for the future!

Today we'll talk about some super flexible screens that are definitely the new wave. The flexible touchscreen itself was developed by a UK company called C.I.T (a subsiduary of Carclo PLC).

Atmel, which makes hardware used in devices from Samsung, Acer and LG, this week introduced XSense. Atmel XSense touch sensors open a new world of possibilities for touch-based products. If you are unfamiliar, XSense is a capacitive touch sensor that can be bent and bonded to surfaces of any shape. 

"XSense can best be described as a high-performance, highly flexible touch sensor which allows engineers to design devices with curved surfaces and even add functionality along product edges"

We've seen it on CES 2013 (Launched in 2012). Now Atmel moves into mass production. 

"According to Mr. Steve Laub (CEO of Atmel), Atmel is now positioned to ramp volume production for this revolutionary new technology".

Check out how revolutionary new Atmel XSense touch sensors can bring touch functionality to a wider array of consumer and industrial products. OEMs will be able to create larger, lighter, sleeker, curved and edgeless designs. 

The video below, aimed at industrial designers, posits that the flexible touchscreens could also be used for “completely new products” such as coffee machines and watches.

Learn more here. 

Have something to add to this post? Please share it in the comments. Connect also with us on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and Pinterest. We would love to share updates with you.

*by andreascy*