Atmel Introduces an AVR32 Digital Audio Gateway Reference Design for Digital Audio Streaming, Decoding and Playback

SAN JOSE, California - Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) announced today the AVR(R)32
ATEVK1105 Digital Audio Gateway kit, demonstrating digital audio streaming,
decoding and playback. These audio capabilities serve the exploding market of
audio accessories and peripherals that connects home and car Hi-Fi audio
systems to the digital age. This includes the popular iPod(R) docking
stations. The kit is based on the AVR high performance AT32UC3A 32-bit Flash
microcontrollers and provides developers with a ready-to-use
hardware/software platform and a variety of interfaces and evaluation
capabilities to meet their audio systems requirements and get faster to
market.

The fast AVR32 CPU featuring DSP instructions is perfect for audio
decoding tasks, and the UC3A handles two audio interfaces. For high quality
stereo output, the chip has a stereo 16-bit bitstream audio DAC with internal
FIR and Comb filters. For 4-channel or full surround sound, an IIS interface
is available for connection to an external audio codec. Both interfaces are
supported with drivers that make full use of the AVR32 peripheral DMA
controller which significantly reduces the CPU overhead.

The ATEVK1105 board comes preloaded with software that demonstrates audio
playback. A booted kit will scan any USB mass storage device for MP3 or other
audio files and play them back. The kit’s software will even scan the ID3
tag and present album artist and song information on the 2″ QVGA onboard
display. MP3 decoding from a USB mass storage device requires only a third of
the AVR32’s processing capacity, leaving plenty of headroom for running the
operation system, streaming the data and refreshing the display.

Customers with a license from Apple(R) are able to interface the kit to a
iPod or iPhone(R) using an authorized Apple authentication chip adapter.

The AVR32 microcontrollers are built for high data throughput rates and
features dual port SRAM, a 6-layer databus and a multi-channel peripheral DMA
controller to help speed things up. This is required when the UC3A
features a 100 Mb/s Ethernet port, a 12 Mb/s USB port, two 33Mb/s SPI ports,
four high speed USARTs, one IIS interface and two I2C compatible interfaces.
The USB port has On-The-Go host function, allowing it to act as a host when
connected to USB devices such as keyboard, mouse, mass storage or audio.

For applications where the on-chip 512 KB Flash and 64 KB SRAM is not
sufficient, the EVK1105 demonstrates how to connect an external SDRAM, serial
DataFlash, SD card reader and USB hard disk or memory stick.

The ATEVK1105 also features connectors for future wireless expansion
modules supporting IEE802.15.4(TM)/ZigBee(R), and Bluetooth(R).

Availability and pricing

Atmel provides all the source code free of charge, including software
drivers for all peripherals, TCP/IP stack and various USB class drivers. This
is available in the AVR32 Software Framework, a software library integrated
with the AVR32 Studio development suite. Atmel also releases the schematics
and Gerber files to allow customers to easily incorporate elements of the kit
into their own designs.

The ATEVK1105 Digital Audio Gateway kit will be available from Atmel’s
distributors in March 2009 with a resale price of US$179.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of
microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio
frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry’s broadest
intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide
the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on consumer,
industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets.

(c) 2009 Atmel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Atmel(R), Atmel logo and
combinations thereof, AVR(R) and others, are registered trademarks, or
trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other terms and product
names may be trademarks of others.

Information:

Atmel’s AVR32 product information may be retrieved at www.atmel.com/avr32

Additional product information about the ATEVK1105 Digital Audio Gateway
kit may be retrieved at www.atmel.com/evk1105

Press Contact:
Helen Perlegos, Public Relations
Tel: +1-408-487-2963, Email: helen.perlegos@atmel.com

Source: Atmel Corporation

Helen Perlegos, Public Relations of Atmel Corporation, +1-408-487-2963, helen.perlegos at atmel.com