Atmel’s AT91SAM9260 Processor drives Indesign’s Computer-On-Module Reference Platform

Atmel’s AT91SAM9260 Processor drives Indesign’s Computer-On-Module Reference Platform

For Doubling of Processing Power, Upgrade to AT91SAM9G20

Indianapolis, Indiana and Rousset, France, October 8, 2008…Atmel Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) and electronic engineering design services firm, Indesign, LLC, announced today the availability of a Computer-On-Module (COM) reference platform for use in products designed by Indesign engineers for their clients. The COM platform is based on the Atmel AT91SAM9260 processor that runs the ARM926EJ-S core at 200MHz. It will enable Indesign engineers to implement designs for their customers more quickly and at lower development costs. Targeted applications include electronic products with no user interface requiring significant processing capability and supporting a variety of interface peripherals including Ethernet, USB, I2S audio and USARTs. These applications take advantage of the high internal data bandwidth that is one of the distinguishing features of the AT91SAM9260, enabling it to simultaneously process and transmit/receive large quantities of data.

The COM reference platform, in a mini-PCI physical form factor, contains 3.3V and 1.8V power supplies for the processor and memories. With the addition of a 1.0V power supply, the board also supports the 400MHz Atmel AT91SAM9G20 for double processing power. The use of 3.3V on the IO pins is ideally suited for industrial type markets where the majority of devices still operate at 3V or higher. The memory interface can be supplied with lower voltages down to 1.8V to enable use of lower cost and lower power memories more widely available. Indesign has adapted the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 board support package with the technical support of Adeneo for the COM with plans to support embedded Linux. Indesign also offers consultancy services for ARM-based designs.

Memories and Peripherals. The COM reference platform includes on-board memory of 64MB mobile SDRAM, up to 128MB NAND Flash, and up to 8MB DataFlash for bootloader and program storage, and has the option of booting from DataFlash or NAND Flash. In addition, the reference platform includes the following on-board peripherals: 10/100Mb Ethernet MAC with MII or RMII interface, 4 UART ports (1 full feature, 3 four-wire, IrDA), 2 two-wire UARTs, 2 SPI ports each with 4 chip selects, I2S audio, 2 USB 2.0 Full Speed Host ports, 1 USB 2.0 device port, four 10-bit A/D inputs with on board 3.0V reference, 1 SD card interface, 1 Two-wire (I2C) interface, watch dog timer, a real time counter, and up to 77 general purpose I/Os. ■