[dorkbotpdx-blabber] AVR Philosophy

[Dan Strother]

AVR peripherals are like most any other microcontroller peripheral
(certainly not bit-banged). Most peripherals that deal with any sort
of data transfer don't require a whole lot of software intervention
once setup (other than to move data around). You perform some basic
setup, and then read/write a register to get data from/to the
peripheral. Interrupts can be used to mitigate the need for polling.
The datasheet describes their operation in great detail.

Most (I previously thought all) AVR's have UARTs of some sort - this
appears to not be the case for the ATmega406, however (which could
explain why you can't find anything about it in the datasheet!). The
406 appears to be a niche-market type device (intended specifically
for battery management).

The ATmega168 (
http://atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?part_id=3303 ) is a
more general purpose - and very popular - device. It does have a USART
(see page 170 of the complete datasheet).


- Dan S.


On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 9:32 AM, dave madden <dorkbot at mersenne.com> wrote:
> Apologies for screwing up the threading on this ... my email hosting got
> hosed and is not back at 100% yet -- I can send email, but have to read
> replies on the website.
>
> The Teeny++ sounds like a good way to get started; I'll buy one at the
> next Dorkbot meeting.  But... what's the best way to get up to speed on
> Atmel philosophy in general?
>
> I found the ATmega406 on their site yesterday, and it looks like a good
> fit for a project I have in mind.  I can program it via JTAG, so I'm
> good there...but how does Atmel do peripherals?  Like, a serial UART?  I
> don't see a description of that in the data sheet.  Do you have to
> bit-bang everything?  Seems kinda old-school...
>
> Thx,
> d.
>
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