Atmel Unveils SAM9G10 ARM926EJ-S-based Embedded Microprocessor

Atmel (News - Alert) has announced that it upgraded its SAM9261S embedded microprocessor to a higher frequency SAM9G10 ARM926EJ-S-based embedded microprocessor which consumes less power and offers higher performance.

 

The company claims that the newly upgraded microprocessor ramps up to a 266MHz clock rate compared to the SAM9261-S's 188MHz, which boosts bus frequency to 133MHz, up from 94MHz, and consumes only 100mW in full-power mode.

 

Atmel deals in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components.

 

The ARM926EJ-S is fully synthesizable processor that features a Jazelle technology enhanced 32-bit RISC CPU, flexible size instruction and data caches, tightly coupled memory (TCM) interfaces and a memory management unit (MMU).

 

Atmel notes that in addition to power and performance improvements over the earlier released chips, the new upgraded SAM9G10 also offers wider voltage ranges which improves support for LCD displays, NAND flash, and memory cards.

 

Atmel is offering free Microsoft (News - Alert) Windows Embedded CE and Linux Board Support Packages (BSPs) for both the SAM9G10 and the recently-upgraded SAM9R/RL embedded microcontroller for advanced graphical user interfaces (GUI) to help app developers easily and quickly leverage the new processor’s capabilities to start newer products.

 

Atmel’s Marketing Director for ARM (News - Alert)-based Microcontrollers Jacko Wilbrink asserted that the company is thriving to be a one-stop shop for high performance and low power ARM-based flash microcontrollers and embedded microprocessors and the release of the upgraded SAM9G10 only underlines that objective.

 

Major enhancements in the SAM9G10 include: a LCD controller compliant with RGB565 whereas SAM9261S’ LCDC was IBGR555 compliant; wider supply voltage ranges on all PIO lines multiplexed with the External Bus Interface (EBI), from 1.65V to 3.6V; Allowance for 1.8V NAND flash memories to be used when other PIOs are powered at 3.3V; Schmitt Trigger inputs on all I/O lines; and Multimedia Card Interface enhancements including support for SD Input/Output (SDIO) cards.

 

Atmel also recently announced it extended its QTouch library to support AVR and AVR32 Microcontrollers and announced a "plug-and-play" CryptoAuthentication host-side IC that allows designers to implement authentication-ready embedded systems.