Atmel AT91CAP9A-STK Starter Kit for CAP Customizable Microcontrollers

Atmel introduced a $750 AT91CAP9A-STK Starter Kit for its CAP Customizable Microcontrollers. The AT91CAP9A Starter Kit facilitates the mapping application-specific IP blocks into its FPGA that emulates the functionality of the CAP metal programmable block, while at the same time providing a development platform for software for the ARM processor. This enables the hardware and software of simple applications, or modules of more complex applications, to be tested at close to operational speed.

Atmel AT91CAP9A-STK Starter Kit for CAP Customizable Microcontrollers

Built on a single PCB including a AT91CAP9S ARM926EJ-S-based microcontroller, 64M Bytes of SDRAM application memory, 512M Bytes of NAND Flash and an optional DataFlash with up to 8M Bytes, together with external interfaces for Ethernet, USB Host and Device, ¼ VGA LCD Panel with Touch Screen, SD Card, 4 analog inputs and audio headphones, the CAP Starter Kit features an Altera Stratix2 EP2S15F484 FPGA and its associated EPCS16 serial configuration memory. The FPGA provides 15600 four-input Lookup Table (LUT) equivalents, corresponding to approximately 124800 gates in the CAP MP Block. For application-specific external interfaces, the AT91CAP9S has 64 general-purpose I/O connections, and the FPGA has 2 banks of 64 I/Os. Debug is facilitated by the provision of an ICE-JTAG interface for CAP9 JTAG programming, and a USB-Blaster-JTAG interface for Stratix2 JTAG programming. The CAP Starter Kit also includes Atmel’s AT73C224 and AT73C239 ICs for power supply and battery management.

The AT91CAP9A-STK Developmet Board includes:

• AT91CAP9S ARM926EJ-S-based microcontroller system-on-chip
• 512M Bytes of NAND Flash
• 64M Bytes of SDRAM application memory
• DataFlash with up to 8M Bytes
• External interfaces for:
  • 10/100 Base-T Ethernet
  • 1/4 VGA LCD Panel with Touch Screen
  • USB Host and Full Speed/High Speed Device
  • SD Card
  • 4 analog inputs
  • Audio output (headphones)
• Altera Stratix2 EP2S15F484 FPGA and its associated EPCS16 serial configuration memory. The FPGA provides 15600 four-input Lookup Table (LUT) equivalents, corresponding to approximately 124800 gates in the CAP MP Block
• 64 general-purpose I/O connections from the AT91CAP9S, and 2 banks of 64 I/Os from the FPGA, for application-specific external interfaces
• ICE-JTAG interface for CAP9 JTAG programming, and a USB-Blaster-JTAG interface for Stratix2 JTAG programming. These facilitate system debug
• AT73C224 and AT73C239 ICs for power supply and battery management

The CAP Starter Kit is supplied with a set of development tools, including:

• KickStart version of IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM
• Microsoft Windows CE Board Support Package and demonstration from Adeneo
• Instructions for downloading Altera’s free Quartus 2 Web Edition tools for FPGA programming

CAP Application Design Flow using CAP Starter Kit

Michel Le Lan, Atmel, said:

The CAP Starter Kit significantly enlarges the CAP user community. It lowers even further the cost barrier for developing a customized microcontroller. It can be used by anyone from a developer in a tier 1 electronics company to the smallest startup to find out how easy it is to customize an ARM-based system-on-chip for a specific application. It is also the ideal vehicle for students of electronics engineering to consolidate their knowledge of system-on-chip hardware and software design…

About CAP Customizable Microcontroller

Atmel’s CAP is an ARM microcontroller-based system-on-chip with fast local memory, a wide range of industry-standard peripherals and interfaces, and a Metal Programmable (MP) Block that allows the designer to add custom logic. By combining the performance, density and low power consumption of the fixed portion of the device with the flexibility of the MP Block, CAP enables application-specific products to be developed in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of standard-cell ASICs, but at a unit price close to that of standard cell devices.

Atmel CAP Customizable Microcontroller

CAP also offers superior performance, smaller form factor and lower power consumption at a unit price significantly lower than an MCU-plus-FPGA combination for the same functionality. CAP is fully supported with an emulation board, software development tools, operating systems, code modules and a worldwide network of expert design centers to facilitate application software development. The CAP MP Block can be personalized with IP developed by the customer, by third-party design centers or from Atmel’s extensive libraries.

More info: Atmel CAP Microcontrollers Starter Kit