Kit Targets low-power portable applications and is preloaded with demo firmware with no need for external programming hardware.
May 21, 2003- Atmel® Corporation announced the availability of the AVR® Butterfly, a low-cost evaluation kit for the LCD AVR family of Microcontrollers. The kit has been designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the first family member the Mega169 Microcontroller with integrated on-chip LCD driver, which is targeted at battery powered applications and consumes less than 50uA at 32KHz.
The Butterfly Evaluation Kit combines common elements found in a typical system including the Mega169 microcontroller, a piezo element for sound generation, integrated light and temperature sensors, LCD display glass, and a 4 Megabit Atmel DataFlash®. A single coin-cell battery powers the AVR Butterfly's operation for up to seven years. These features enable designers to easily begin development. The User Guide and other collateral for the AVR Butterfly evaluation board is available on the Atmel website, and includes source code and C-code drivers for all peripherals including the on-chip LCD driver. Instructions on obtaining this collateral are included with the Butterfly evaluation kit.
The Butterfly is shipped preloaded with demo firmware capable of performing the following embedded applications: Clock and Calendar, Digital Thermometer, Light Intensity Measurement, Digital NameTag, and Jukebox. The demo firmware also utilizes the Mega169 Boot Sector, allowing users to upload their own code into the device without using external programming hardware.
The capabilities of Mega169 and Butterfly will be demonstrated by Atmel during a one-day seminar held at 15 different locations around the USA during June 2003. At the seminar, there will be examples of AVR low power design methodology and numerous hardware design tips. Additionally the will be presentations covering in-depth real world applications powered by Atmel's AVR, 8051 and ARM Microcontrollers ranging from 8051 enabled Smart Card Readers and MP3 players to ARM-based solutions like Point of Sales Terminals and Residential Gateway Applications.
Atmel's AVR Butterfly Evaluation Kit order code is ATAVRBFLY. The suggested retail price is USD $19.99 and it can be purchased from any of Atmel's franchised distributors.
