Atmel Offers New AVR Microcontrollers with Integrated LCD Controllers and picoPower Technology

San Jose, California (ots/PRNewswire) -

- The picoPower AVR Devices with on-Board LCD Controller
Outperform Market Solutions for System Integration and Power
Consumption

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML), announced today four new
AVR(R) microcontrollers that incorporate power-saving technology for
multi-year battery life in LCD, lighting control, security, home
automation, ZigBee(TM) and other battery applications. The new AVR
products are upgraded versions of the popular 64-pin ATmega325/329
and the 100-pin ATmega3250/3290 microcontrollers.

The 64-pin ATmega329P and 100-pin ATmega3290P devices integrate a
complete LCD controller that has several powerful features which
include a dedicated low-power LCD waveform, an internal contrast
control, a flexible selection of drive time and frame frequency, an
internal power supply for the LCD voltage, and the ability to operate
in power-save mode for low power consumption. Compared to existing
market solutions, the internal LCD power supply reduces the number of
components in the end product, only requires one external capacitor
and is powerful enough to drive a 3.3V LCD display from a battery
voltage of 1.8V or higher.

"Fewer external components make an application less expensive,
reduce time to market and simplify production logistics," said Ingar
Fredriksen, Director of Product Marketing AVR. "Development and
debugging is easier and the PCB area is reduced and simplified. For
typical LCD applications the picoPower(TM) technology with on-chip
LCD controller can add years to the battery life," concluded Mr.
Fredriksen.

The new ATmega325P and ATmega3250P devices are pin and feature
compatible to the ATmega329P and ATmega3290P, without the on-chip LCD
controller. The ATmega325P and ATmega3250P are a perfect fit in
applications where many general purpose I/O, high connectivity and
ultra-low power consumption are essential.

All four microcontrollers feature 32 Kbytes of self-programmable
Flash memory, 2 Kbytes of SRAM and 1 Kbyte of EEPROM, 10-bit ADC, 3
Timer/Counters, USART, SPI, I2C compatible two-wire-interface, and
full operation from 1.8 to 5.5 volts with up to 16 MIPS throughput.
The ATmega329P can support up to 100 LCD segments and the ATmega3290P
supports up to 160 LCD segments.

These new products expand Atmel's world leading and highly
successful line of picoPower AVR microcontrollers from five to nine
members. Atmel's picoPower technology utilizes a variety of
innovative techniques that eliminate unnecessary power consumption in
power-down modes. These include an ultra-low-power 32 kHz crystal
oscillator, automatic disabling and re-enabling of brown-out
detection (BOD) circuitry during sleep modes, a power reduction
register that completely powers down individual peripherals, and
digital input disable registers that reduces the leakage current on
digital inputs. The picoPower AVR microcontrollers consume as little
as 340 uA in Active mode, 650 nA in Power-save mode with Real-Time
Counter (RTC), and 100 nA in Power-down mode.

Tools

AVR picoPower microcontrollers use the standard AVR
microcontroller development tools. The AVR Studio(R) integrated
development environment is available free of charge on Atmel's web
site.

Pricing and Availability

The ATmega329P and ATmega325P in 64-pin TQFP or QFN packages are
available now. Samples for the ATmega3290P and ATmega3250P in 100-pin
TQFP packages will be available in January 2007. Production
quantities will be available in the first quarter of 2007 for
ATmega329P and ATmega325P, and the second quarter of 2007 for
ATmega3290P and ATmega3250P. Volume prices for 10k units are US$3.54
for ATmega329P, US$3.20 for ATmega325P, US$3.90 for ATmega3290P and
US$3.37 for the ATmega3250P, respectively.

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), megaAVR(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:

Atmel's picoPower AVR information may be retrieved at:
www.atmel.com/products/avr/picopower

Contact: Philippe Faure, Marketing Communications Director -
Microcontrollers, +33-2-40-18-18-87, or philippe.faure@nto.atmel.com,
or Helen Perlegos, Public Relations - USA and Asia Pacific Rim,
+1-408-487-2963, or hperlegos@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.

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, or philippe.faure@nto.atmel.com, or Helen
Perlegos, Public Relations - USA and Asia Pacific Rim,
+1-408-487-2963, or hperlegos@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