Atmel has announced a new 32-bit embedded CPU architecture with DSP extensions that is expected to extend the battery life of portable, handheld multimedia products such as portable video players, MP3 players and mobile phones.
Early benchmarks of the AVR32, conducted by benchmarking organisation, EEMBC, gauge the core's performance per clock cycle at three times that of other processors, according to Atmel. This faster throughput means that applications can be executed with fewer clocks, reducing power consumption and increasing the battery life of the end-product. Code size benchmarks also indicate exceptional results with up to 50% reduction compared to other processors, it adds.
"Traditionally chip vendors have increased processing power by making processors run faster," said Oyvind Strom, AVR32 product director. "This is a real issue for portable devices because turning up the clock directly increases power consumption and reduces battery life. The approach taken with the AVR32 is to increase the amount of processing the processor can do internally during each clock cycle.
"Although it is difficult to digest the notion that a processor could be more powerful using fewer clock cycles, that is exactly what we are doing," adds Strom. "For example, running at just 100 MHz, the AVR32 core can do all the processing required to decode quarter-VGA MPEG4 movies - the same format as used with the iPod - while other processors are required to operate as fast as 266 MHz. For the end-user, this means a longer battery-life."
By increasing the AVR32's clock frequency to 400 MHz or more, the exceptional computational capability of the architecture can also be used to handle more tasks and remove additional processors. Technical details can be found at www.atmel.com/avr32.
According to Atmel, its 8-bit AVR is now the leading 8-bit Flash microcontroller on the market. Shipments of AVR-based products are growing at a compounded rate of 35% per year, and more than 1,4 billion units have been shipped, it claims. With the new AVR32 core, Atmel intends to again provide another major innovation that will help developers to build next generation embedded systems.
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