AVR microcontrollers: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:44, 6 December 2004

Revision as of 00:18, 31 December 2004

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The '''Atmel AVR'''* is a family of [[RISC]] [[microcontroller]]s from [[Atmel]]. The AVR architecture was conceived by two students at the [[Norwegian Institute of Technology]] (NTH) and further refined and developed at '''Atmel Norway''', the Atmel daughter company founded by the two chip architects.

Unlike the [[PIC microcontroller|PIC]], the AVR [[instruction set]] is strictly orthogonal and compatible across models. The AVR was designed at the outset for efficient execution of [[compiler|compiled]] [[C programming language|C]] code. Thus some instructions, such as '<code>add immediate</code>', are strangely missing (you have to '<code>subtract immediate</code>' the [[complement]] instead), while others, such as '<code>compare with carry</code>', are included. Like the PIC, it has a dedicated [[hobbyist]] following (exemplified by the ''AVRFreaks'' Internet forum), largely due to the existence of inexpensive/free development tools, for instance a port of the GNU [[GNU Compiler Collection|GCC]] tools.

(* The acronym "AVR" has been reported/rumoured to stand for '''''A'''dvanced '''V'''irtual '''R'''ISC'' and/or the initials of the two company founders&mdash;'''A'''lf Egil Bogen and '''V'''egard Wollan&mdash;who for their part have chosen to let the matter rest unresolved, giving mostly shadowy answers when asked directly.)

== External links ==