migration from ARM to AVR

Hi Norman,

If the design that you would like to migrate is utilizing the full capabilities of the ARM MCU that you used, you can hardly achieve your goal at present.

With 8-bit AVR, here are the hindrances

• you will be switching from 32-bit to 8-bit (16-bit arithmetic supported) architecture
• your previous ARM MCU runs at 168 MHz, you only have up to 32 MHz for 8-bit AVR
• the size of the Flash memory will be reduced from 2 MB to 384 KB
• Currently, I am not aware of 8-bit AVR with RAM close to 256 KB.
• ARM Cortex-M4F MCUs have hardware support for DSP and floating-point arithmetic.

The 32-bit AVR UC3 microcontrollers have support for DSP and the C-Series include an integrated FPU but the fastest devices run only up to 66 MHz and the largest Flash memory is only 512KB.

Christopher Seidl wrote:

Edit: I just saw that you are looking for a migration guide to Atmel - I don't think that you will find that here

It is common for companies to produce a guide for migration to their products. What you want to do is the opposite, to migrate from ARM to other architecture. Logically and understandably ARM will not create a document for a purpose that is unfavorable to them. Nevertheless, the responses that you obtained from this forum, though not official, are valuable and provide you the guidance that you seek.

Regards,

Goodwin

Hi Norman,

If the design that you would like to migrate is utilizing the full capabilities of the ARM MCU that you used, you can hardly achieve your goal at present.

With 8-bit AVR, here are the hindrances

• you will be switching from 32-bit to 8-bit (16-bit arithmetic supported) architecture
• your previous ARM MCU runs at 168 MHz, you only have up to 32 MHz for 8-bit AVR
• the size of the Flash memory will be reduced from 2 MB to 384 KB
• Currently, I am not aware of 8-bit AVR with RAM close to 256 KB.
• ARM Cortex-M4F MCUs have hardware support for DSP and floating-point arithmetic.

The 32-bit AVR UC3 microcontrollers have support for DSP and the C-Series include an integrated FPU but the fastest devices run only up to 66 MHz and the largest Flash memory is only 512KB.

Christopher Seidl wrote:

Edit: I just saw that you are looking for a migration guide to Atmel - I don't think that you will find that here

It is common for companies to produce a guide for migration to their products. What you want to do is the opposite, to migrate from ARM to other architecture. Logically and understandably ARM will not create a document for a purpose that is unfavorable to them. Nevertheless, the responses that you obtained from this forum, though not official, are valuable and provide you the guidance that you seek.

Regards,

Goodwin

Dear Goodwin,

Thank you very much for your reply and helpful information you provided me

with. I also  need help for another issue and I would  appreciate if you

could help me on that. I have    problem searching for a specific part in

all Altium libraries. So, I have to search for the part in each of the

libraries one by one, while I do not know which library has the information

regarding the part I am looking for. So, it takes a lot of my time. This

is  not the case with Cadsoft Eagle, where it is quite easy to find a part

in its libraries. I have already searched on the internet for the

information, but none of them have been helpful. Can any one guide me on

that?

Regards

Norman

I do not know Altium at all, but which specific part are you talking about ?

If I was in your shoes, I'd first of all contact the manufacturer of that part and ask if they had an Alitum version of it.

If you got no replies, I'd ask Altium's tech support (or a forum there).

If the part simply does not exist, I would create it myself.

As written above, I don't know anything about Alitum or creating parts in it, but all the parts I've used in my own PCB layout program, I've created myself, and it might be quicker to create a missing part than searching for it.

Be advised, though: You will need to be very careful and make sure you get all measurements correct.

If the part you're searching for is an IC, such as LQFP, QFN, BGA or similar, then use a generic footprint and create your specific part from that.

Although I was a user of Protel (then), I don't have Altium so I can't give you much help on this.

Whether you are doing schematic capture or PCB layout, generally a part can be found through its category (e.g., ADC, DAC, EEPROM, LDO, microprocessor) or through its manufacturer (e.g., Analog Devices, Atmel, NXP, ST, Texas Instruments). If you can't find it in the pre-installed libraries, my advice would be similar to Jens' reply. When you have to create your own part, consult the datasheet to get the package type. You can use the generic footprint as is but if the manufacturer has a suggested dimensions for the pads you can have them modified.

Thanks for your recommendation and I guidance. I think this is the right

one.

Regards

Norman