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News and New Products
Processor integrates more peripheral support
By Robert Cravotta -- EDN, 9/8/2005
Atmel’s AT91SAM7X128 and AT91SAM7X256
ARM7-based, flash microcontrollers include peripheral support for 10/100
Ethernet; CANs (controller-area networks); full-speed, 12-Mbps USB 2.0 devices;
and high-speed AES/3DES (Advanced Encryption Standard/Data Encryption Standard)
encryption in a single device. The 50-MIPS microcontrollers offer either 32 or 64 kbytes of SRAM, along with 128 or 256 kbytes of 25-nsec flash memory that supports deterministic memory access. A peripheral DMA controller connects each peripheral directly to on-chip memory, enabling high-throughput data transfers without any processor overhead. Additional peripherals include a 10-bit ADC, an eight-level priority-interrupt controller, SPI, SSC (synchronous serial controller), TWI (two-way interface), UARTs, and supervisory functions. The embedded encryption engine, with the peripheral DMA controller, can encrypt or decrypt data at a rate of 80 Mbps for AES, 32.8 Mbps for DES, and 20 Mbps for 3DES (Triple DES).
Software-development support includes compilers, linkers, and debuggers from IAR Systems (www.iar.com), Green Hills Software (www.ghs.com), and Keil Software (www.keil.com). CMX Systems (www.cmx.com), Micrium (www.micrium.com), and FreeRTOS (www.freertos.com) offer RTOSs for the SAM7X processors. TCP/IP stacks that are available now include open source uIP/lwIP, Micrium’s royalty-free μC/TCP-IP, and CMX Systems’ royalty free MicroNet. The AT91SAM7X128 is available now in a 100-lead LQFP green package for $7.20 (10,000); the AT91SAM7X256 is available in a 100-lead LQFP green package for $8.65 (10,000). The AT91SAM7X-EK evaluation kit is available from Atmel for $250.
Atmel, www.atmel.com.
