Atmel Introduces a Low Cost Development Tool for AVR Microcontrollers

AVR Dragon Provides On-Chip Debugging and Programming at Only $­­49

San Jose, CA, September 18th, 2006. . . Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) announced today the AVR Dragon™ development tool for AVR® microcontrollers. By providing a complete on-chip debugging and programming tool for more than 30 different AVR Flash microcontrollers at only $­­49, the AVR Dragon is the industry’s most comprehensive low-cost development tool.

Setting a new standard for low-cost debugging tools

With the AVR Dragon, Atmel has set a new standard for low-cost development tools. The AVR Dragon supports all programming modes for all AVR microcontrollers and on-chip debugging for AVR microcontrollers with up to 32 Kbytes of Flash program memory.

At just a fraction of the price usually required for such a full-featured tool, the AVR Dragon will fulfill all programming and debugging needs. The AVR Dragon can be used with an external target board as well as an onboard prototype area, allowing programming and debugging without any additional hardware.

Low-cost and high-quality tools supporting a wide range of AVR microcontrollers

By focusing on quality and having only one tool suite covering the entire AVR microcontroller family, engineers only need to deal with a few affordable tools to get a complete development environment. “Low cost, wide coverage and good quality has always been our motto for AVR development tools,” said Dag Arne Braend, Atmel’s AVR Development Tools Director. “The AVR Dragon is another example of a very low cost tool, yet robust enough to handle everyday life in a development environment; and it supports more than 30 different AVR microcontrollers.”

Supported AVR Programming and Debugging Protocols

· In-System Programming (ISP) 3-wire AVR programming protocol

· JTAG Programming 4-wire IEEE® 1149.1 compliant JTAG interface

· High Voltage Serial Programming

· Parallel Programming

· JTAG debugging Available for devices with up to 32 Kbytes Flash

· debugWIRE One-wire AVR debugging protocol

PC communication and power by USB – No external power supply required

AVR Dragon is powered by the USB cable and can also source an external target with up to 300 mA for programming or debugging. If the target is already powered by an external power source, the AVR Dragon will adapt and level convert all signals between the target and the AVR Dragon.

AVR Studio – Complete debugging environment with C-compiler available free of charge

The AVR Dragon uses the AVR Studio® integrated development environment (IDE) available free of charge from Atmel. AVR Studio includes a simulator, assembler, and C-compiler and is the software front-end for all Atmel AVR debugging and programming tools. A flexible and secure firmware upgrade feature allows AVR Studio to easily upgrade the AVR Dragon to support new devices free of charge. AVR Studio can be downloaded from http://www.atmel.com/avr.

AVR Microcontrollers

Atmel's AVR 8-bit microcontrollers have a RISC core running single-cycle instructions and a well-defined I/O structure that limits the need for external components. Internal oscillators, timers, UART, SPI, pull-up resistors, pulse width modulation, ADC, analog comparator and watch-dog timers are some of the features available in AVR devices.

AVR instructions are tuned to decrease the size of the program whether the code is written in C or Assembly. With on-chip in-system programmable Flash and EEPROM, as well as on-chip debug on all devices, the AVR is a perfect choice in order to optimize cost and get product to the market quickly.

Pricing and Availability

The AVR Dragon is available today from all of Atmel's franchised distributors at a suggested retail price of $­­49. The order code is ATAVRDRAGON.

New Display On Glass Module Series
This new display series was specially developed for low-power hand-held applications. For the first time it is possible to operate a standard display at 3.3V! 5V operation is naturally also possible. The optionally available LED backlighting can also be run with 3.3V or 5V depending on the connections.

Advantages

• compact at 55 x 31 mm at a default font size of 5.57 mm (2 x 16):
• flat at 2.0 mm without backlighting and 5.8 mm with backlighting
• can be soldered directly into the PCB without any further assembly
• 4-bit, 8-bit and SPI interface
• 3.3V or 5V - also for the LED backlighting
• many different designs which can be implemented as of 1 unit
• Top. -20..+70°C integrated temperature compensation
• no minimum quantities, extremely short delivery times

Display variants

Currently, 3 different variants are available, each of which come in STN yellow/green, reflective, STN blue, FSTN positive and negative:

• 1 x 8 characters with 11.97 mm font
• 2 x 16 characters with 5.57mm font
• 3 x 16 characters with 3.65mm font

Illumination
Five different colors are available as backlighting:

• white
• yellow/green
• blue
• red
• amber

yellow/green	white	blue	amber	red
EA LED55x31-G	EA LED55x31-W	EA LED55x31-B	EA LED55x31-A	EA LED55x31-R

Simply clip the display and the backlighting unit together and you have up to 21 possible combinations.

Ultraflat construction

With a height of just 2.0 or 5.8 mm. And this has been achieved without any special construction, but rather with easily processed pins with a pitch of 2.54 mm.
It is also possible to implement a plug-in design using contact strips.

For further information, please see the data sheet (1.399kB) and the specifications for the onboard controller ST7036 (873kB).