Atmel ARM9-based Products Support Android OS

TAIPEI, Taiwan, May 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Computex --  Atmel® Corporation (NASDAQ: ATML), a leader in microcontroller and touch technology solutions, today announced that the Atmel SAM9G45 and SAM9M10 ARM®-based products will support the Android™ operating system (OS) for applications in consumer, industrial and computing markets. Based on the 32-bit ARM926 processor, Atmel SAM9G45 and SAM9M10's ARM9™-based microcontrollers are now compatible with Android, with full board support package (BSP) for the Android OS using SAM9M10-G45-EK boards.

Android is becoming an OS of choice with embedded developers not only in handsets and tablets but in a variety of applications in vertical markets, including household appliances, industrial equipment monitors and medical devices. It offers several benefits for embedded developers over traditional Linux® distributions, and is considered as an "out-of-the-box" Linux solution. It is a complete package built on top of the Linux kernel with libraries for audio and graphics, application framework, and browser and multimedia applications. With Atmel's new ready-to-use BSP for SAM9 devices, designers can now run Android on an Atmel ARM9 processor to save overall system costs and hours of coding time on the Android platform.

Atmel is collaborating closely with companies such as Mentor Graphics® (NASDAQ: MENT) to provide designers with the option to use a ready-to-use UI GUI (user interface graphical user interface) for their embedded applications in vertical markets. Phil Burr, director of UI product marketing, Mentor Graphics Embedded Software Division said, "We are excited that the Atmel SAM9 class of devices will fully support the Android OS for consumer and industrial applications. We are working closely with Atmel to ensure embedded developers can quickly pull up our Inflexion UI tool to create rich UIs and get the most out of their hardware design using the easy-to-use, drag-and-drop Inflexion UI tool." Customers can also get additional support and customization services from third parties and the Android community.

The Atmel Android port is based on version 2.1 and supports a camera interface, hardware video decoding (for the SAM9M10 only), software decoding, Web browsing via an Ethernet cable or a WiFi SDIO dongle from Atmel partner H&D Wireless.

"Atmel is committed to bringing easy-to-use solutions for its ARM-based embedded developers to design applications in consumer and vertical markets," said Jacko Wilbrink, product marketing director, Atmel Corporation. "The support of Android OS on Atmel's ARM9-based products is proof of our commitment to listen to our customers and address their requirements. We will continue to provide our customers with tools and support that can help them save overall system costs and bring their products faster to market."

About Atmel SAM9M10 and SAM9G45 Microcontrollers

Atmel SAM9M10 and SAM9G45 microcontrollers include a 400 MHz ARM926-based microprocessor that integrates twin parallel external bus interfaces (EBI) to support dual data rate DRAM (DDR2) at 133 MHz. It also integrates high-speed (480 Mbps) USB Host and device ports with on-chip transceivers, Ethernet MAC, two interfaces for MMC 4.3 and SDIO/SD Card 2.0, as well as an LCD controller with touch screen support, and CMOS camera and audio interfaces. The SAM9M10 decodes video streams up to D1 (720 x 576 pixels) or WVGA (800 x 480) at 30 frames per second (fps). It is pin-to-pin compatible with the SAM9G45, and extends Atmel's ARM9™ offering at the top.

The multi-layer bus architecture for both devices are associated with 35 DMA channels, 64KB of SRAM that can be configured as TCM, and dual bus interface that sustains the high bandwidth required by the processor and its high-speed peripherals. The I/Os support 3.3V. Both devices are available in a BGA324 package with 0.8mm ball pitch.

More Information

More information on Atmel ARM-based products is available at: http://www.atmel.com/products/at91/default.asp?family_id=605&pr_arm-android

About Atmel
Atmel Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of microcontrollers, capacitive touch solutions, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on industrial, consumer, communications, computing and automotive markets.

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