Atmega32A - Architecture and Features

            The Atmel®AVR® ATmega32A is a low-power CMOS 8-bit microcontroller based on the AVR enhanced RISC architecture.As discussed earlier Atmega32A is a Mega AVR which has 32KB of Program memory and an Advanced AVR RISC Architecture. ATmega comes in two packages,DIP and TQFP packages.DIP package has 40 pins while TQFP's have 44 pins.DIP's are better used as it requires no soldering when used on a simple breadboard compared to TQFP which needs to be soldered to Targetboard. TQFP's are used in applications where the size of the board is to be decresaed and the board can be mass manufactured by standard PCB manufacturers only. RISC stands for Reduced Instruction Set Computing. A more detail of the RISC architecture is here. In short RISC architecture helps in fast execution of the instructions, by providing a separate space for instructions, called the FLASH Memory, thus separating the program instructions from the program data.

     

                       ATmega32A has 40 pins of which 32 are programmable digital input or output pins divided in to four ports as A,B,C,D. Apart from working as simple input or output pin most of these have alternate special functions which can be used by programming. A simple pinout diagram of the Microcontroller is shown in here

Features of  ATmega32A

• Advanced RISC Architecture
• 32KB of Flash(In-system Programmable Program memory),1024Bytes of EEPROM(Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM ), 2Kbytes of SRAM(Static RAM)
• Internal calibrated RC Oscillator of 1Mhz
• Optional BOOT code section with Independent Lock bits
• Programming LOCK for software security

• Two 8-bit timers,One 16-bit timer,One real time counter with separate oscillator
• Programmable Watchdog Timer with separate Oscillator
• On-chip Analog Comparator
• Four PWM channels
• Eight 10-bit ADC channels
• Programmable USART, TWI and Master/Slave SPI
• External and Internal Interrupt Sources
• Six sleep Modes for Power saving
• Power-on RESET and Programmable Brown-out Detection

                        Most of the above features are common for all the Mega AVR's.A first look at these would throw us in to anxiety to know what they are.We shall look at these one by one. ATmega32A can operate between 0-16Mhz speed grades and the power consumption is proportional to the operating speed. The operating Voltage varies between 2.7 to 5.5V depending on the oscillator speed. To save power supplied to the Microcontroller different sleep modes can be used according to the requirement.

Block Representation of ATmega32A
                         The different features operating in conjunction with the AVR CPU core can be observed in the block diagram of the ATmega32A shown in here.Don't freak out!!!. It's just to know how the CPU core is connected to various peripherals.

                              The best source about the architecture in detail, is the datasheet provided by the manufacturers itself. The datasheet contains information about the different electrical charateristics and limitations of maximum quantities. Also sample codes are provided to understand each feature in detail. Atmel website even provides extensive documentation about different features and the ways to use these features.

Download the Datasheet

Goto Atmel Website