Atmel Offers Seamless 802.15.4/ZigBee Migration for AVR-based Embedded Sensor and Control Applications

San Jose, California (ots/PRNewswire) -

- 103 dB link budget cuts system cost by up to 2/3, low power
offers 5+ year battery life. Fully compliant 802.15.4 MAC and
daughter board for STK500 included in user kits.

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) announced today an
802.15.4/ZigBee(TM) solution that offers seamless migration to
wireless networking for the more than 30,000 AVR(R)-based designs in
automotive, industrial, and building control applications. The AVR
Z-Link(TM) solution includes Atmel's ultra low power, high
sensitivity 2.4 GHz AT86RF230 802.15.4 radio, an ultra low power
ATmega1281 or ATmega 2561 AVR microcontroller, and a small
footprint, fully compliant media access control (MAC) software
optimized for the AVR architecture. This chip combination consumes
less power, has a higher link budget, and a wider operating range
than any 802.15.4 solution on the market today under comparable
operating conditions.

Network and application layer software are provided by the Atmel's
network of expert third-party vendors who offer optimized solutions
in the IEEE(R) 802.15.4 standard and the ZigBee(TM) protocols.

103 dB Link Budget Cuts System Costs -- The -100 dB receive
sensitivity and 3 dB transmit power of Atmel's Z-Link radio give it
the highest link budget of any 802.15.4 radio on the market today.
The AT86RF230 has line-of-sight range up to 2.8 times that of
competing radios, reducing the total number of nodes required in the
network and cutting 802.15.4 system cost by as much as 60%. The 103
dB link budget of the radio is achieved without external power
amplifiers, resulting in a low bill of materials (BOM) cost. Only six
external components are required for the radio function, the
industry's lowest component count.

Lowest Power Radio/Controller Combo Extends End-node Battery Life
-- 802.15.4/ZigBee end nodes are usually battery-powered, mandating
multi-year battery life. With radio power consumption of 17 mA during
transmission, 15 mA during receive mode, and 0.7 uA in sleep mode
Atmel's Z-Link radio, with true 1.8V operation consumes the least
power of any 802.15.4 radio on the market.

In a real-life application with one transmission per minute, the
Atmel chip set consumes significantly less than 0.01 mA hours on
average, resulting in a battery life of greater than 5 years using
two AA 2700 mA hours batteries. The battery life of an Atmel end-node
is predicted to be limited by the other non-radio/MCU system
components, such as sensors or actuators, or by the shelf life of the
battery.

AVR Microcontroller Offers Flexibility -- This solution is
supported by Atmel's AVR family of 8-bit RISC microcontrollers with
flash memory densities ranging from 32 KB to 256 KB. Existing AVR
applications can be converted to 802.15.4 functionality by porting
the legacy code to an AVR with a larger flash memory to accommodate
the MAC and security layers.

RZ502 Accessory Kit -- Atmel's Z-Link radio is available as an
add-on to STK(R)500/501 AVR starter kits. This RZ502 accessory kit
allows existing STK500 users to easily upgrade to a wireless
connection option.

RZ200 Demonstration Kit -- The demonstration kit contains five
radio controller boards with Atmel's Z-Link 2.4 GHz 802.15.4 radio
and ATmega1281 microcontroller, plus AVR ISP programming dongle, all
the necessary cables, batteries, and antennas to allow users to
create a simple five-node network for application evaluation.

Pricing Availability and Packaging

Atmel's AT86RF230 Z-Link radio is available now in a 5x5mm QFN
package. The ATmega1281 and ATmega 2561 microcontrollers are
available now in 9x9mm QFN packages. Atmel's AVR 802.15.4 chip set is
available in the following bundle configurations, in quantities of
10,000 or more units:

ATmega64RZA Bundle of ATmega644 and AT86RF230 US$4.93
ATmega128RZA Bundle of ATmega1281 and AT86RF230 US$6.78
ATmega256RZA Bundle of ATmega2561 and AT86RF230 US$7.63
The RZ502 AVR Z-Link Accessory Kit is available for US$99.00
The RZ200 AVR Z-Link Demonstration Kit is available for US$499.00

All kits include a fully featured 802.15.4 media access controller
software stack at no extra cost.

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(R).

NOTE: Atmel(R), logo and combinations thereof, Everywhere You
Are(R), AVR(R) and others are registered trademarks, Z-Link(TM), and
others are trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other
terms and product names may be the trademarks of others.

Information:

AVR Z-Link product information may be retrieved at
http://www.atmel.com/products/avr/z-link.

Press Contacts:
Philippe Faure, Marketing Communications Manager - Microcontrollers
Phone: +33-2-40-18-18-87, Email: philippe.faure@nto.atmel.com
Veronique Sablereau, Corporate Communications Manager - Europe
Phone: +33-1-30-60-70-68, Fax: + 49-71-31-67-24-23,
Email: veronique.sablereau@atmel.com
Helen Perlegos, Public Relations - USA and Asia Pacific Rim
Phone: +1-408-487-2963, Email: hperlegos@atmel.com

About ZigBee: Wireless Control That Simply Works

The ZigBee Alliance is an association of companies working
together to enable reliable, cost effective, low-power, wirelessly
networked, monitoring and control products based on an open global
standard. The ZigBee Alliance membership comprises technology
providers and original equipment manufacturers worldwide. Membership
is open to all.

Additional information can be found at www.zigbee.org.

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

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

Contact:
Philippe Faure, Marketing Communications 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 fax, +49-71-31-67-24-23, or
veronique.sablereau@atmel.com, or Helen Perlegos, Public Relations -
USA and Asia Pacific Rim, +1-408-487-2963, or hperlegos@atmel.com