20
7598H–AVR–07/09
ATtiny25/45/85
The next code examples show assembly and C functions for reading the EEPROM. The exam-
ples assume that interrupts are controlled so that no interrupts will occur during execution of
these functions.
5.3.10
Preventing EEPROM Corruption
During periods of low V
CC
, the EEPROM data can be corrupted because the supply voltage is
too low for the CPU and the EEPROM to operate properly. These issues are the same as for
board level systems using EEPROM, and the same design solutions should be applied.
An EEPROM data corruption can be caused by two situations when the voltage is too low. First,
a regular write sequence to the EEPROM requires a minimum voltage to operate correctly. Sec-
ondly, the CPU itself can execute instructions incorrectly, if the supply voltage is too low.
EEPROM data corruption can easily be avoided by following this design recommendation:
Keep the AVR RESET active (low) during periods of insufficient power supply voltage. This can
be done by enabling the internal Brown-out Detector (BOD). If the detection level of the internal
BOD does not match the needed detection level, an external low V
CC
reset protection circuit can
be used. If a reset occurs while a write operation is in progress, the write operation will be com-
pleted provided that the power supply voltage is sufficient.
Assembly Code Example
EEPROM_read:
; Wait for completion of previous write
sbic
EECR,EEPE
rjmp
EEPROM_read
; Set up address (r17) in address register
out
EEARL, r17
; Start eeprom read by writing EERE
sbi
EECR,EERE
; Read data from data register
in
r16,EEDR
ret
C Code Example
unsigned char
EEPROM_read(
unsigned char
ucAddress)
{
/* Wait for completion of previous write */
while(EECR & (1<<EEPE))
;
/* Set up address register */
EEARL = ucAddress;
/*
Start eeprom read by writing EERE */
EECR |= (1<<EERE);
/* Return data from data register */
return EEDR;
}
