AtmelCorporation have announced two additions to their SAM G series of ARMCortex-M4-based MCUs. The two latest models are designated the SAM G54 and SAM G55. They feature high performance (up to 120MHz), low-power (102 µA/MHz in active mode, down to 5 µs wake-up) and tiny outline (as small as 2.84 x 2.84mm). Both are targeted at IoT applications and include all the features of the current SAM G family of devices including an Atmel | SMART ARM Cortex-M4 MCU + FPU (floating point unit) together with integrated sensor fusion algorithms.

Additional key features for the new SAM G series include:

  • High-performance throughput and efficiency with a Cortex M4-based MCU and FPU
  • Up to 512KB of Flash and up to 160KB of SRAM
  • SRAM power banking
  • 2.84 x 2.84 mm 49-ball WLCSP with 0.4 mm pitch
  • Flexible serial peripherals and ultra-low power ADC
  • USB Host and Device
  • Peripheral Event System and SleepWalking
  • Atmel ultra-low power picoPower technology
  • 64-pin QFP and QFN package options.

In order to maintain energy efficiency, many smart, connected devices use a sensor hub to aggregate and manage the sensors in the device, converting the information into usable data to improve power efficiency and performance. The new SAM G55 series gives designers the option to determine how much SRAM they will require to retain in sleep mode in order to achieve lower and better power efficiency for their designs by utilizing SRAM power banking.

To streamline development a SAM G55 Xplained Pro evaluation kit is available for the SAM G55 series. The ATSAMG55-XPRO evaluation board includes an embedded debugger; Atmel Studio integrated development platform and the Atmel Software Framework. The kit is also fully supported by third party partners IAR and Keil.