Atmel’s 8-bit AVR microcontrollers lost their novelty value rapidly to become an established cornerstone of many Elektor projects over the years. The new addition to this family, the XMEGA series, has raised the stakes, elevating these 8/16-bit microcontrollers to a new level of system performance. Elektor author Benedikt Sauter has already sampled an AVR XMEGA.Many Elektor readers know and love the 8-bit AVR microcontroller family from Atmel. This is hardly surprising in view of the wide availability of these products, the straightforward data sheets, the free software provided (debugger, compiler, linker, programmer, etc.) and not least the popular and effective BASIC compiler BASCOM-AVR.