“With 16 KB of SRAM, Atmel’s ATmega1284P now targets low-power applications that traditionally need external SRAM,” said Ingar Fredriksen, AVR Product Marketing Director of Atmel Corporation. “By removing the external SRAM and address latch, the ATmega1284P significantly reduces the bill-of-material, manufacturing cost, complexity and development time for our designers to bring their products to market.”

The ATmega1284P is pin- and feature-compatible to the ATmega164PA, ATmega324PA, and ATmega644PA. The four devices provide a drop-in migration path from 16 to 128 KB of flash and 1 to 16 KB of RAM. The ATmega1284P consumes 100 nA in power-down mode, 700 nA in power-save mode and 0.45 mA in active mode at 1.8 V and 1 MHz.

The ATmega1284P is now available as a standalone product. The product is also available in Atmel’s RZRAVEN evaluation and starter kits and in wireless bundles.

ATmega in Wireless Bundles

High RAM-to-flash ratios are normally associated with 32-bit microcontrollers. However, with picoPower technology and the efficient AVR central processing unit (CPU), the ATmega1284P is designed for applications that require extremely low power consumption. These applications can range from ZigBee self-powered light switches, to ZigBee Smart Energy-compliant water and gas meters that are being deployed worldwide and demand several years of maintenance free operation on a single battery. The ATmega1284P is also an ideal companion for Atmel’s wireless AT86RF212, AT86RF230 and AT86RF231 transceivers for other wireless bundles.

Availability and Pricing

Samples of the ATmega1284P are available now. The device has a suggested retail price of $3.31 in 10K quantities.

ATmega1284, a non-picoPower version of the ATmega1284P, will be available in the fourth quarter of 2009.