ATMEGA 8(/L) FEATURES TO START WITH....

GUYS THIS POST IS ABOUT A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO uC ATMEGA 8 , WHICH IS AN AVR SERIES 28 LEAD PDIP MICRO-CONTROLLER UNIT FROM ATMEL INC.

 FOR ME IT IS ONE OF THE BEST IC FOR SMALL PROJECTS AND ONE SHOULD START FROM IT BEFORE GOING INTO SOME OF THE MAJOR uC IC'S , SO LET US GET STARTED INTO THIS BEFORE THINKING OF ANYTHING BIGGER.

ATMEGA 8 FEATURES

• RISC(REDUCED INSTRUCTION SET COMPUTER): most famous computer architechture and contradictory to CISC(COMPLEX INSTRUCTION SET COMPUTER) architecture. RISC is generally very fast & executes 1 instruction per cycle.  

RISC has a fewer instructions but contains large no. of general purpose registers for fast processing.     

• MEMORY SEGMENTS :                    

1. 8K BYTE ISP FLASH: PROGRAM STORAGE.
2. 1K BYTE  INTERNAL SRAM: CACHE OF ATMEGA8.
3. 512 BYTE EEPROM: RUN TIME DATA PERMANENT STORAGE.

                    DON'T YOU WORRY ABOUT THESE & THEY ALL WILL BE DONE AS WE GO ON TO EXECUTE SOME PROGRAMMING ONTO OUR MCU.

• 130 POWERFUL INSTRUCTIONS(MOST OF THEM ARE SINGLE CLOCK EXECUTABLE)

          32*8 GENERAL PURPOSE REGISTER(ENOUGH OF THEM)

          

          UP TO 16 MIPS THROUGHPUT.

• IMPORTANT FEATURES:

1. 2 8BIT & 1 16 BIT T/C WITH FEATURES TO BE DISCUSSED LATER.     
2. 6 CHANNEL 10 BIT ADC BUILT IN 
3. BYTE ORIENTED 2 WIRE SERIAL INTERFACE .
4. PROGRAMMABLE SERIAL USART .
5. M/S SPI SERIAL INTERFACE.
6. ON CHIP ANALOG COMPARATOR.
7. 4.5-5.5 WORKING VOLTAGE.(SAFETY CIRCUIT IS REQUIRED).       

MOST OF THEM MIGHT LOOKED NEW AND HARD TO START BUT BELIEVE ME THAT THEY WILL BE DONE AS LONG AS YOU CONTINUE TO WORK WITH MCU.

                                                          PINOUT OF ATMEGA 8(/L)

NOW THE QUESTION MUST BE RAISED LIKE JUST KNOWING THE OUTLINE OF ATMEGA8  & WE ARE DONE WITH AND INTERESTINGLY THE ANSWER IS YESSSS !!!!!!!

ALTHOUGH THE THINGS(VERY BASIC REQUIREMENT) TO BE ACCOMPANIED WITH THIS OUTLINE ARE :

• A VERY BASIC KNOWLEDGE OF C/C++ UPTO POINTER, FUNC & ARRAYS ONLY.
• ATMEL AVR STUDIO 4(/5): HERE YOU WRITE YOUR PROGRAM.
• WIN AVR: AVR GCC COMPILER(FOR YOUR STUDIO 4 TO WORK)
• AVR LOADER/ AVR DUDE: TO BURN YOUR PROGRAM ONTO THE CHIP.
• USBASP PROGRAMMER AND CIRCUITORY FOR THE CHIP.

http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=2725 FOR AVR STUDIO

http://sourceforge.net/projects/winavr/files/ FOR WIN AVR 

http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Developer-Tools/AVRDUDE.shtml FOR AVR DUDE.

APART FROM THESE LINKS I WILL GIVE YOU TUTORIALS ABOUT HOW TO MAKE PCB'S AT HOME SO THAT YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN CIRCUIT(ALTHOUGH CAN BE MADE TEMPORARILY ON BREADBOARD THOUGH).

                                          

                                     THIS SIMPLE VIDEO DESCRIBES PCB MAKING @HOME 

SO, WE ARE DONE WITH IT AT THIS MOMENT WE WILL PROCEEDING TO THE PROGRAMMING PART NEXT TIME AND ALSO DESCRIBE MORE OF LCD & IT'S CONNECTIVITY WITH ATMEGA 8 TO DISCOVER MORE NEW THINGS..........