Atmel joins the crowd and announces a 32-bit L-version of the AVR32, the UC3L more specific the AT32UC3L0. Power related numbers mentioned in the press release are competitive yet some of them are not easy to understand. The head line: "Atmel Next-Generation 32-bit AVR UC3L MCU Lowers Power Consumption by up to 90 Percent" lags a reference. 90% lower than what? The assumption is lower than previous versions of the AVR32. There is a 9nA for shutting everything down, no RTC running, as far as I can tell no memory retention, no status retention whatsoever but a very low number in deed; what is active to draw the 9 nA? I just hope that there is no Power On Reset required to get out of this mode because the startup time for the AVR32 UC3Llags behind best in class options (EFM32 and MSP430)

The preliminary specification contains almost complete data, that is a significant achievement this early in the product cycle. Although I do not know how early it actually is when a revision "E" hits the market and still has 22 known Errata at this point in time. This is however a huge improvement over the 108 known Errata present in revision "B". All major players compete for a slice of the low power market and the AVR32 UC3L is not exactly the first to the market in this segment. Previous versions claimed very low power too but were easily matched or outperformed but other devices based on Cortex-M3 or Cortex-M0. Having to compete against a standard architecture like the Cortex-M series, known for its low power, is not easy and this might explain why the UC3L hits the market while it could still be considered a bit premature.

Here are excerpts from the original Atmel Press Release:

Atmel® Corporation today announced production availability of the next-generation Atmel 32-bit AVR® UC3L microcontroller (MCU) with picoPower® technology and embedded capacitive touch controller peripherals. By lowering the static power consumption by 90 percent and active power consumption by 45 percent, Atmel enables a performance/power ratio unsurpassed in the microcontroller market. With 1.5 DMIPS per MHz and DSP (digital signal processing) instructions at your fingertips, embedded system engineers have more performance than ever before. Target applications for these products include audio processing applications such as USB and Bluetooth headsets, game pads and advanced voice or touch-enabled human interface devices. The Atmel 32-bit AVR UC3L series includes high-performance, low-power capabilities in an extremely compact physical form factor, at 5.5 x 5.5mm TLLGA package, to address the size constraints of portable applications. Also see World's Smallest Microcontrollers

The new Atmel 32-bit AVR UC3L MCUs cut static power consumption by 90 percent down to 9nA. This figure is lower than the tantalum capacitor decoupling the board power supply and comparable to leakage currents in even the most advanced battery technologies. Active power consumption is reduced to 165uA/MHz, a 45 percent improvement from previous generations. The performance of the Atmel 32-bit UC3L core enables further power savings by running at a far lower speed than conventional MCUs when providing the same performance.

The power saving is enabled by the Atmel picoPower low-power technology leadership that addresses all aspects of a microcontroller's power consumption, including active operation modes as well as all sleep modes. The enabling technology innovations include peripheral SleepWalking, where peripherals can operate in extremely low-power states and make qualified decision during CPU sleep.

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About Atmel AVR UC3L Series

The Atmel AVR UC3L series is the first 32-bit MCUs with picoPower low-power technology. The L series delivers a wide range of unique capabilities to embedded engineers using 32-bit microcontrollers, such as a built-in capacitive touch peripheral module. A unique glue logic controller eliminates external PLDs, reducing the total system cost. The series also includes Atmel FlashVault code protection to allow the on-chip flash to be partially programmed and locked, creating secure on-chip storage for software intellectual property.

Additional innovative technologies, which were industry first in the UC3L series, include the interrupt eliminating Peripheral Event System (Infineon had a Peripheral event Controller in 1990!?), Clock Failure Protection, Spread Spectrum Clocks with fast startup times, a Frequency Meter, an RTC with Crystal Precision Tuner and calendar mode, and a PWM output on all 36 I/O pins (haven't heard this one before, could be useful). More information on the Atmel AVR UC3L series is available at: http://www.atmel.com/UC3.

Development Tools

The AT32UC3L-EK is the evaluation kit supporting the AT32UC3L0 family. The kit facilitates evaluation of power consumption and the Atmel QTouch® peripheral hardware module. It gives easy access to all I/O pins and can be used with the ATAVRRZ600 plug-in (sold separately) to evaluate wireless applications. The kit works with all Atmel AVR debuggers and is supported by the AVR UC3 Software Framework. The kit is available now at distributors with a suggested resale price of U.S. $79.00.

Availability, Pricing and Photos

The AT32UC3L0 series is available in 48-pin QFP, QFN and TLLGA packages down to a 5.5 x 5.5mm size. Production volumes are available now and are priced at U.S. $3.18 in 10k quantities.