Atmel's AVR Microcontrollers Now Integrate RF Transmitter Functionality to Address Industrial Applications

San Jose, California (ots/PRNewswire) -

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) today announced the first
ATA874x single-chip UHF ASK/FSK RF transmitter family targeting a
broad range of proprietary wireless industrial and consumer
applications such as metering, alarm systems and home control
applications. This new AVR(R) product family offers industry-leading
RF performance operating in the license-free ISM frequency bands (868
to 928 MHz, 433 MHz, and 315 MHz).

As a well-known market player in smart metering and home
automation with its wireless IEEE 802.15.4 and ZigBee(R) products,
Atmel now takes the additional step to address the requirements in
the diversified proprietary wireless market segments.

With a low-power AVR CPU, a highly effective RF transmitter, and
a sleep-mode power consumption of only 160 nA, the ATA874x family
members are uniquely optimized to address battery-driven applications
such as remote controls or garage door openers. The tiny QFN24
packages, measuring only 5 mm x 5 mm, allow the creation of extremely
small designs at highly competitive costs. Customers can benefit from
a bill of material (BOM) cost savings of up to 30 percent and
board-area savings of up to 50 percent, when compared with
conventional solutions.

These new ATA874x devices are highly integrated, and incorporate
Atmel's well-accepted RF transmitter technology that have sold over
50 million units to date.

The ATA874x devices offer maximum flexibility using the ATtiny44V
CPU, allowing in-system flash memory re-programming. By executing
powerful instructions in a single-clock cycle, the ATtiny44V achieves
throughputs approaching 1 MIPS per MHz that enable system designers
to optimize power consumption versus processing speed. The powerful
AVR controller simplifies hardware and software designs.

The key features of Atmel's new highly-integrated,
microcontroller-based RF solution include proven technologies shipped
in various products since 2001. The market-leading 8-bit
microcontroller AVR CPU has been incorporated into countless products
and Atmel has shipped more than a billion units. Atmel's RF
technology has satisfied even the strictest quality and reliability
demands of the automotive market. Customers that have worked with AVR
or earlier RF products can reuse existing RF transmitter or AVR
designs and software, thus reducing both development costs and
time-to-market.

The ATA874x single-chip narrow band transmitter family
complements the well-established Atmel ISM band receivers, such as
ATA8201 and ATA8202 or ATA8203/4/5, providing a total end-to-end
solution to its customers.

Availability and Pricing

Samples of the ATA874x family are now available in small-outline
QFN24 packages. Pricing starts at USD $1 for quantities of 200k. To
simplify and accelerate product design, a complete design kit for
uni-directional RF applications, as well as Atmel's well-known AVR
Studio(R) for new software development (STK512-EKx-IND), are
available for customer lab measurements and performance evaluations.

Additional Information:

More information on Atmel's AVR microcontroller family ATA874x
with RF transmitter functionality is available at:

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=4634 (ATA8741)
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=4635 (ATA8742)
http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=4636 (ATA8743)
Footnote
ASK = Amplitude Shift Keying
BOM = Bill of Materials
FSK = Frequency Shift Keying
ISP = In-System Programming
MIPS = Million Instructions Per Second
QFN = Quad Flat No leads
UHF = Ultra High Frequency
SPI = Serial Peripheral Interface

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) 2009 Atmel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Atmel(R), Atmel
logo and combinations thereof, AVR(R), AVR Studio(R), and others are
registered trademarks or trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its
subsidiaries. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of
others.

Press Contacts:
Dr. Susanne van Clewe, Marcom Director Automotive
Phone: +49-7131-67-2081, Email: susanne.van-clewe@atmel.com
Clive Over, Director of Public Relations
Phone: +1-408-436-4305, Email: clive.over@atmel.com

ots Originaltext: Atmel Corporation
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Contact:
Dr. Susanne van Clewe, Marcom Director Automotive, +49-7131-67-2081,
susanne.van-clewe@atmel.com, or Clive Over, Director of Public
Relations, +1-408-436-4305, clive.over@atmel.com, both of Atmel
Corporation