Atmel Launches Family of Power Efficient ARM Microcontrollers

Atmel SAM4L processors target designs that need both performance and low power usage.  An evaluation kit is available for $149 at the Atmel store with an integrated power meter.

This family uses the ARM Cortex-M4 processor which has the highest performance in the Cortex-M family and includes control and signal processing capabilities.  For pricing and availability see this Atmel press release.

SAM4L-EK: Overview

The SAM4L-EK evaluation kit features an ATSAM4LC4C with 256K flash and 48MHz max clock frequency.  The kit includes an on-board Segger J-Link, capacative touch area, USB device connector, light sensor, audio jack, segmented LCD, a wireless interface header and an add-on board header for Atmel Sensors Xplained boards.  A unique feature of this board is the real-time power monitoring section with OLED color display.

New Low-Power ARM Processors Available from Freescale

Cortex-M0+ processors and $12.95 development platform are now in stock at Mouser  The Cortex-M0+ is the most energy efficient ARM processor and is currently only available in the Freescale Kinetis L series MCU family.  Currently available are a KL25 with USB and a KL15, both with 128KB program memory, 16KB data RAM, and 48MHz clock frequency.

The FRDM-KL25Z Freescale Freedom Development Platform is also available at other distributors including DigiKey.  It includes a Capacitive touch slider, accelerometer, tri-color LED, OpenSDA USB to serial debug interface, and an open-source data logging application.  See the video below for more information.

Introducing the Freescale Freedom Development Platform FRDM-KL25Z