{"id":8787,"date":"2014-12-24T00:40:57","date_gmt":"2014-12-24T05:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/embedded-lab.com\/blog\/?p=8787"},"modified":"2016-12-18T19:45:50","modified_gmt":"2016-12-19T00:45:50","slug":"atxmega-primer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/embedded-lab.com\/blog\/atxmega-primer\/","title":{"rendered":"ATXMega Primer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The XMega series is a powerful addition to the existing arsenal of Atmel\u2019s AVR-core micros. As much as I have personally studied about it so far and felt, the XMega series incorporates many features of conventional 32-bit ARM micros like alternate I\/O pin mapping functionalities, sophisticated clock options and data buses, multiple communication platforms that have several uses, variety of capture-PWM options, 12-bit ADCs and DACs, DMA controller, USB hardware, etc. with the good old AVR core. Thus you get one hell of an 8\/16 bit MCU that can fulfil your wildest micro desires. In terms of unit cost, resources and user flexibilities this family of micro can beat any present day micro in most of the scenarios. Unlike other manufacturers who design chips as to fit specific applications, there\u2019s no limit for XMega series. It is one controller with unlimited possibilities that can fit into any application. Indeed it is a true Atmel slogan now:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy microcontroller can beat the hell out of your microcontroller<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are several things that are should be known. XMega is still a relatively new breed of micro. There\u2019s literally nothing similar to it in the market no matter which manufacturer you can name. As I said Atmel added literally everything that can be imagined. Initial XMega devices had several hardware flaws and were unstable. They had problems related to power and operational stability. However these shortcomings are no longer there as they were. Atmel dramatically improved this new line of devices and are yet doing a lot of R&D on it. The older successful AVR Mega series micros are not as same as XMegas and so what can be applied to Mega AVR can\u2019t be applied for the XMegas. There are significant differences both in terms of hardware and software but still there are similarities.
\n
\nAt present we have different families of XMega devices. Of these many we are focused toward the AU series only throughout this post and its following ones. I’ll explain later why I\u2019m interested in this series. This is the first post of a series of posts that I’ll be publishing time-to-time. Well I should admit that making tutorial notes is not my favourite hobby but it helps me to keep documentations for future uses, reference, etc. and at the same time help others to get an easy access that I have crossed with lot of difficulties. I must also say that I’m not a good author when it comes to books, notes or other form of documentation and so if anywhere throughout the series should you find something wrong please don’t hesitate to inform me. Through these posts, I\u2019ll try to explain as much as possible but I\u2019ll suggest the readers to go through XMega manuals available at Atmel\u2019s website http:\/\/www.atmel.com<\/a> before starting to play with the chips themselves. These manuals are way too large to explain down to every bits and pieces and so, at least at the time of writing this doc, there are very few resources available in the internet in a scattered fashion. Very few people have worked with XMegas and not everyone shared their collective knowledge. Even at this time there\u2019s no book on this micro family. It should also be noted that due to XMega\u2019s unavailability in DIP versions, complex internal hardware and lack of support in popular simulator software like the Proteus VSM, the XMega series is still not that much popular amongst hobbyist and DIYers. Arduino developers even moved to ARM micros rather than choosing XMega. XMega MCUs are also relatively new and form a different family of micros that are only of their kind. Hardly can I find any other 8\/16 bit MCU with so much robustness and agility. All these are just the opposite for the popular PIC or Mega\/Tiny AVR micros. For basic questions on XMega vs Mega AVR and baseline info refer to this doc: http:\/\/www.atmel.com\/Images\/doc8169.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

XMega Features<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

These are what Atmel\u2019s website have to say about XMega family in short.<\/p>\n