Atmel Introduces an AVR-based 2.4 GHz Wireless Evaluation and Development Platform at US$99

San Jose, California (ots/PRNewswire) -

- The kit allows an easy evaluation of short range wireless
connectivity with IEEE802.15.4, ZigBee, 6LoWPAN, etc.

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) announced today the
availability of the AVR(R) RZ Raven evaluation kit that provides
designers a unique ready-to-use development platform in the rapidly
growing low power wireless market for the 2.4GHz ISM frequency band
available worldwide.

The kit utilizes the AVR picoPower(TM) technology in combination
with the superior RF performance offered by the AT86RF230 2.4 GHz ISM
transceiver.

The RZ Raven kit comprises two Raven boards, one USB Stick and a
selection of firmware application and software that will dramatically
reduce time to market for designers considering short range wireless
ISM band applications based on IEEE802.15.4(TM), ZigBee(R) or
6LoWPAN.

The Raven board can be used as a multi application wireless node
with a LCD graphical user interface. It has two AVR picoPower
microcontrollers: an ATmega1284P that can be used to control RF
application stacks, and an ATmega3290P that controls the display and
user interfaces. The Raven contains a custom LCD display, a 5
position joystick, a microphone and a speaker allowing the evaluation
of a variety of user interactions that are appropriate in the target
wireless applications.

To support application development the following functionalities
are available: graphical user interface, communication ports,
ATmega1284P port pins available on headers, on-board temperature
sensor, voltage sensor, relay driver, boot loader and ISP support for
programming.

The USB stick can serve as a PC gateway to the wireless network,
or as the hardware platform for wireless protocol analyzer. It is
based on the AT90USB1287 AVR microcontroller and the AT86RF230
transceiver.

The firmware provided includes low level drivers and application
stacks enabling simple point to point communication, IEEE 802.15.4
compliant solutions, and more complex applications based on ZigBee
and 6LoWPAN. Updated source code, libraries and documentation for the
applications are available from the Atmel web site. PC software is
also provided, including a demo and a management suite for setup,
configuration and management of wireless networks. Key features
include wireless protocol analyzer and Over-The-Air upgrade (OTA).

"Customers selecting the AVR Wireless platform get a flexible
solution with a wide selection of microcontrollers tailored for any
wireless application," said Magnus Pedersen, Director of AVR Product
Marketing. "Combining the superior RF performance and the extremely
low power consumption of picoPower technology, Atmel provides an
ideal platform for the rapidly growing market of low power wireless
devices demanding years of life on a single battery."

The AT86RF230 offers industry best RF performance with a link
budget of 104 dB and gives up to 3 times the range of competitor
radios. This results in an outdoor range of up to 700 m with the high
gain PCB antenna used on the Raven board. Current consumption in
active mode is only 15 mA and down to 20 nA in sleep mode.

AVR picoPower devices consume as little as 340 uA in active mode
at 1.8V running from the internal RC oscillator at 1 MHz. In
power-save mode it is 500 nA with a real time counter running, and
100 nA in power-down mode. picoPower AVRs are pin-, performance-, and
code-compatible with existing AVR microcontrollers giving designers
flexible hardware options for small, medium sized and complex
wireless networks.

The Raven board and the USB Stick holds FCC and ETSI
certification.

Availability and Pricing

The new kit is available now at a resale price of US$99. Ordering
code is: ATAVRRZRAVEN.

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.

(C) 2008 Atmel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Atmel(R), logo
and combinations thereof, AVR(R) and others, are registered
trademarks, picoPower(TM) and others are trademarks of Atmel
Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other terms and product names may be
trademarks of others.

Information: AVR RZ Raven information can be retrieved at:
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=4291

Product information on Atmel's AVR can be retrieved at
http://www.atmel.com/avr

Press Contacts:
Philippe Faure, Marketing Communications Director -- Microcontrollers
Tel: +33-2-40-18-18-87, Email: philippe.faure@atmel.com
Helen Perlegos, Public Relations
Tel: +1-408-487-2963, Email: hperlegos@atmel.com

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

ots Originaltext: Atmel Corporation
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Contact:
Philippe Faure, Marketing Communications Director --
Microcontrollers, +33-2-40-18-18-87, philippe.faure@atmel.com, or
Helen Perlegos, Public Relations, +1-408-487-2963,
hperlegos@atmel.com, both of Atmel Corporation