HackADay talks Arduino Zero with Atmel’s Bob Martin

On May 15, Arduino and Atmel debuted the long-awaited Zero. The 32-bit development board packs Atmel’s versatile SAMD21 microcontroller (MCU), which is built around ARM’s Cortex M0+ core.

Key hardware specs include 256kb of flash, 32kb SRAM in a TQFP package and compatibility with 3.3V shields that conform to the Arduino R3 layout.

 The Arduino Zero board also boasts flexible peripherals along with Atmel’s Embedded Debugger (EDBG) – facilitating a full debug interface on the SAMD21 without the need for supplemental hardware.

In addition, EDBG supports a virtual COM port that can be used for device programming and traditional Arduino bootloader functionality.

During Maker Faire Bay Area 2014, the HackADay crew had the opportunity to go hands on with the new board, discussing the Zero with Atmel’s very own Bob Martin.

“There are two USB connectors; one let you access the board as a device or a host while the other connects the debugging hardware. If you’ve never used an On Chip Debugger before it’ll change your life so do give it a try,” writes HackADay’s Mike Szczys.

“When you do move past the initial prototyping phase of your project you can still use the Zero as a debugging tool. There’s an unpopulated 10-pin header (not sure if the small pitch header comes with it or not) which can be used to interface with a target board. Bob also spent some time talking about the configurable 6-pin header which allows you to choose from a range of hardware protocols (SPI, TWI, etc.)”

Interested in learning more about the Atmel-powered Arduino Zero? You can check out the development board’s official page here.

SleepWalking Helps Conserve Energy

Imagine you are the sole care-provider for a household full of babies all under the age of 3.  Each and every single one of them requires you to tend their needs and desires.  From feeding to going to the bathroom, from burping to changing their diapers, from bathing to putting them to nap/sleep to keeping them entertained, you are needed every single step of the way.  Isn’t that just exhausting?  Fast forward by a decade when they are grow to become teenagers – autonomy and self-sufficiency – in which they can all satisfy their own basic needs without your help, unless it’s an urgent matter.  Now you have much more free time to read a book, surf the net, get a job, or take a nap.

In essence, this is what SleepWalking is all about in the realm of an Atmel MCU.  Traditionally a technology found in the AVR architecture only, it is now incorporated into the ARM architecture as well.  It is a feature that extends the concept of autonomous peripherals (babies) that operate independently of the CPU core (a parent or care-provider) during active mode, to actually keeping the peripherals functional when the system clock has been stopped. This is achieved by clocking the peripherals using the real‐time clock (RTC), instead of the system clock.

In the SAM4L, SleepWalking has been integrated into many of the peripherals, including the analog comparator, the ADC, the I2C, UART and the capacitive touch interface. It is then the peripheral that decides whether to wake the system, instead of the CPU waking periodically to carry out an interrupt service routine.  With this feature, the need to wake the CPU reduces significantly thus allowing it to stay inactive for longer and more frequent and thereby conserving more energy.

For more information, check out this video for a more detailed explanation on SleepWalking.  Please note: despite the AVR UC3 being used as an example in the video, the underlying fundamentals of how SleepWalking works and its benefits are the same as in the ARM SAM4L.

What’s new in Atmel’s ARM MCU? picoPower!!

The SAM4L it is the first ARM device to feature Atmel’s picoPower technology, and takes low power to a new level.   There are many different characteristics that make a low power device; foremost it is the active power, the wake-up time and sleep mode power consumption. For the SAM4L, this can go down to 90 µA/MHz in active, down to 700 nA in sleep mode and down to 1.5 µs wake-up. Additionally the Cortex-M4 and Atmel’s fast flash technology allows your application to spend a shorter amount of time in active and spend more time in low power modes. All of this significantly reduces the total power consumption for your application.

Atmel SAM4L MCUs redefine the power benchmark, delivering the lowest power in both active (90uA/MHz) and sleep
modes (1.5uA with full random access memory (RAM) retention and 700nA in backup mode). They are the most efficient
MCUs available today, achieving up to 28 CoreMark™/mA using the IAR Embedded Workbench, version 6.40.

Check out this video for more information about picoPower in the SAM4L.  Also, please be sure to follow us on this blog to learn more on how these ARM devices become so power conscious and other neat application tutorials.  Or share, collaborate, and innovate with the other tens of thousands of engineers/builders in the vibrant AT91 community.

New Hardware Kits for Evaluating and Prototyping with Flash Microcontrollers

You now have a new tool available to evaluate, prototype and develop with Atmel® Flash microcontrollers. The new Atmel Xplained Pro hardware kits are easy to use, extensible and low in cost. With an Xplained Pro kit it only takes minutes to run your first program on the microcontroller. Just connect the kit to your PC with a USB cable and the Atmel Studio 6.1 integrated development platform immediately recognizes the boards. , Click a button to program the MCU with a ready-made application example based on Atmel Software Framework and you are set to execute and single step through the first lines of C code.

Need additional software tools?  Just download extensions for the Studio 6 IDP from the Atmel Gallery online apps store.

Need additional hardware?  The Xplained Pro boards are standardized designs of microcontroller boards, with extension boards providing additional capabilities like displays or breadboarding. With this combination, you can create a system to evaluate new Atmel AVR® and ARM® processor-based devices in the context of your targeted applications.

The following boards are now available:

• SAM4L Xplained Pro
  • Cortex-M4 based Atmel SAM4L4 MCU with 256kB Flash
  • SAM4S Xplained Pro
    • Cortex-M4 based Atmel SAM4SD32 MCU with 2MB Flash
    • ATMEGA256RFR2 Xplained Pro
      • With AVR based ATMEGA256RFR2 MCU WITH LOW POWER 2.4GHZ TRANSCEIVER FOR IEEE 802.15.4
      • Segment LCD1 Xplained Pro extension board
      • OLED1 Xplained Pro extension board
      • IO1 Xplained Pro extension board
      • PROTO1 Xplained Pro extension board

These boards are available in the following kits:

• Evaluation kits, providing the MCU boards, priced at $39
• Starter kits, providing a bundle of a MCU board and extension boards, priced at $99 and up
• Extension kits, providing single extension boards

You can buy Xplained Pro kits through your Atmel distributor or online at store.atmel.com.

When you want to decide if the Atmel MCU is the right fit for your design, Xplained Pro kits are the fastest and easiest way for evaluation, prototyping and development.