Atmel's AVR32 line (see "A New Player
In The 32-Bit Processor Field") has a
more compact sibling, the AT32UC3A. This
66-MHz, 80 MIPS chip cuts the pipeline
down to three stages and removes the
Java support, but it adds more bit field
instructions and better interrupt handling ().
The single-cycle fractional multiply/
add/accumulate (MAC) and the DSP
instructions are retained. The cache is
gone, but this makes the system more
determinant, which is critical in the low-power applications it targets. A split flash
memory uses staggered access to double
instruction delivery speed.
The memory management unit has been replaced with a memory protection
unit that's more common in low-end
embedded platforms. It handles 16 independent regions. The main bus matrix is
designed to handle numerous bus masters. The USB On-The-Go (OTG) can be a
master or slave device. Nexus-compatible trace support augments the JTAG
debug support.
The 3.3-V chip draws only 35 mA at 66
MHz. It has 64 kbytes of SRAM and 512
kbytes of flash. Pricing starts at $8.67.
Atmel
www.atmel.com