Atmel Cortex-M4 mcus offer lowest power, highest efficiency
1 min read
Designed to consume 66% less power than competing devices, Atmel's newly launched ARM-Cortex-M4 processor based microcontrollers are said to provide 'unrivalled' wake up times while delivering the highest total application performance in all operating modes.
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Incorporating the company's proprietary ultra low power picoPower technology, the SAM4L devices are optimised to run on 90µA/MHz in active mode and deliver 28 Coremark/mA. According to Atmel, they consume 1.5µA in sleep mode with full ram retention and 700nA in back-up mode.
"We are excited to integrate our proven AVR picoPower technology into the new SAM4L family of Cortex M4-based devices," said Alf-Egil Bogen and Vegard Wollan, co-inventors of the AVR architecture, Atmel. "By incorporating some of the best technologies of the AVR platform into our new Cortex-M4 mcu portfolio of products, we're delivering unprecedented low power to the ARM community and a new level of compatibility and familiarity between our two popular microcontroller families."
The new devices are targeted at battery powered consumer, industrial and portable healthcare products. Additional features include a Peripheral Event System that allows peripherals to communicate directly with one another without using the cpu, and SleepWalking technology that allows a peripheral to qualify and evaluate incoming data, also without any use of the cpu.