
Introducing the next-generation of 8-bit megaAVR MCUs - mmastrac
http://atmelcorporation.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/introducing-the-next-generation-of-8-bit-megaavr-mcus/
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mmastrac
One of the really interesting things from article that Atmel is doing here is
releasing _very_ low-cost eval boards for the new chips:

[http://store.atmel.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10500404;c:100113...](http://store.atmel.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10500404;c:100113#tc:description)

[http://store.atmel.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10500392;c:100113...](http://store.atmel.com/PartDetail.aspx?q=p:10500392;c:100113#tc:description)

Also happy to see improved internal RC-oscillator support. I had to jump
through some hoops to self-calibrate my project [1] for 9600 baud serial.

If there's one thing I'd ask from Atmel, it's that they release a low-cost,
multi-core AVR. Right now there's a lot of timer juggling if you want to do
more than one thing at once, and a second core would drastically improve that.

[1]
[https://github.com/mmastrac/gpsclock/blob/master/displaydriv...](https://github.com/mmastrac/gpsclock/blob/master/displaydriver/calibrate_serial.c)

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pdknsk
The very low cost evaluation boards almost make up for not providing DIP
packages.

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mmastrac
Yeah, that's one thing that irked me here. I imagine that Adafruit and/or
Sparkfun and/or Chinese resellers on eBay will fill the void and we'll end up
with a dip-like breadboard.

From the datasheet, it looks like they've explicitly dedicated those four
extra pins to I/O, so I imagine this means there will never be a DIP
equivalent. Is a sign that DIP packages are on the way out?

~~~
swamp40
DIPs have been dead for a long time, with only a few exceptions.

Replacement parts, hobbiest markets, and some optocouplers with huge spacing
requirements are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head.

RoHS requirements were one of the final nails in the coffin, but even before
that the material costs were really eating into profit margins - especially
for the larger microcontrollers.

For the older standard parts, I think RoHS requirements forced die redesigns,
and manufacturers didn't want to pay for an obviously dead trend, so a lot of
old packages got dropped then.

