3
ATmega161(L)
1228B–09/01
Description
The ATmega161 is a low-power CMOS 8-bit microcontroller based on the AVR
RISC
architecture. By executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, the ATmega161
achieves throughputs approaching 1 MIPS per MHz allowing the system designer to
optimize power consumption versus processing speed. The AVR
core combines a rich
instruction set with 32 general purpose working registers. All the 32 registers are directly
connected to the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), allowing two independent registers to be
accessed in one single instruction executed in one clock cycle. The resulting architec-
ture is more code-efficient while achieving throughputs up to ten times faster than
conventional CISC microcontrollers.
The ATmega161 provides the following features: 16K bytes of In-System or Self-
programmable Flash, 512 bytes EEPROM, 1K byte of SRAM, 35 general-purpose I/O
lines, 32 general purpose working registers, Real-time Counter, 3 flexible timer/counters
with compare modes, internal and external interrupts, 2 programmable serial UARTs,
programmable Watchdog Timer with internal oscillator, an SPI serial port and 3 soft-
ware-selectable power saving modes. The Idle mode stops the CPU while allowing the
SRAM, timer/counters, SPI port and interrupt system to continue functioning. The
Power-down mode saves the register and SRAM contents but freezes the oscillator, dis-
abling all other chip functions until the next external interrupt or hardware reset. In
Power-save mode, the timer oscillator continues to run, allowing the user to maintain a
timer base while the rest of the device is sleeping.
The device is manufactured using Atmel’s high-density nonvolatile memory technology.
The On-chip Flash program memory can be reprogrammed using the self-programming
capability through the boot block and an ISP through the SPI port, or by using a conven-
tional nonvolatile memory programmer. By combining an enhanced RISC 8-bit CPU with
In-System Programmable Flash on a monolithic chip, the Atmel ATmega161 is a power-
ful microcontroller that provides a highly flexible and cost-effective solution to many
embedded control applications.
The ATmega161 AVR
is supported with a full suite of program and system development
tools including: C compilers, macro assemblers, program debugger/simulators, in-circuit
emulators and evaluation kits.