Atmel 8/16-bit High Performance Low Power Flash Microcontrollers Event System, DMA Controller

100% CPU usage

MSB

AVR XMEGA Microcontroller

The Complete Microcontroller - XMEGA

Atmel’s AVR has grown to become the preferred MCU for demanding embedded projects[1]. With the brand new XMEGA operating from only 1.6 volts with speeds up to 32 MHz, designers now get even more performance and low power capabilities. With an impressive list of features and a drastically increased peripheral throughput, the CPU can spend less time handling peripherals and even more time in sleep mode.

AVR CPU	MEMORIES		Event System
	Flash	DMA Controller
32 MHz	EEPROM	4-channels	Interrupt Controller
1.6V
	SRAM
12-bit ANALOG	16-bit TIMERS	COMMUNICATION	CRYPTOGRAPHY
		USART
ADC and DAC	Real-Time Counter		AES
		SPI
2 Msps/1 Msps	Timer/Counters		DES
		TWI

Event System

Like a reflex in the human body, the innovative XMEGA Event System enables inter-peripheral communication without CPU or DMA usage. This ensures 100% predictable and short response time. Up to 8 simultaneous events or interrupt conditions in the peripherals can automatically start actions in other peripherals.

Response Time

Conventional MCU

XMEGA with Event System

Application complexity

Real 12-bit ADC and DAC

For high analog accuracy the XMEGA features high-speed 12-bit analog peripherals. Capable of up to 2 Msps, XMEGA’s ADCs deliver the fastest sample rate and most accurate result compared to conventional MCUs. Since XMEGA also features two 12-bit digital-to-analog converters (DAC) with up to 1 Msps and four advanced analog comparators, XMEGA microcontrollers have leading analog integration.

DMA Controller

A 4-channel DMA Controller enables fast, CPU independent data transfer that significantly boosts performance. The DMA Controller in XMEGA handles transfers between all combinations of data memories and peripherals. The AVR CPU register file and multiple bus layers ensures that

the data bus is always accessible for the XMEGA DMA Controller.

without DMA

with DMA

Communication rate

Decisions in Embedded Development Survey.

Programmable Multilevel Interrupt Controller

All peripherals have software selectable interrupt levels and different interrupt vectors. Important interrupts are executed immediately and tasks are prioritized with minimum latency.

Performance Peripherals

XMEGA is packed with new, improved peripherals including:

• multiple analog comparators	• multiple USARTs, TWIs and SPIs
• several 16-bit Timer/Counters with 8 unique	• IrDA®
time bases	• Fast AES and DES crypto engine.

[1] 2007 CMP Embedded Brands Keys