Atmel cuts AVR development cost with ‘Dragon’ £26 development board

2006-11-09

Atmel has introduced a £26 development board as a low cost entry point for users of the AVR family of microcontrollers. Despite the low cost, there is no significant compromise in performance or functionality between the RoHS-compliant AVR Dragon and similar tools in the £500 to £1000 price range. The AVR Dragon supports all programming modes of 8-bit AVR devices and on-chip debugging of devices with 32k or less Flash program memory. In-system and board programming and debugging are supported. Programming can be via JTAG, parallel port, or high-voltage serial interfaces. Signal lines are level converted and have both over-voltage and short circuit protection. A 4-layer, epoxy printed circuit board ensures good signal integrity.

Powered via a USB cable, the AVR Dragon can provide a regulated 5V at 300mA supply to the target system for programming or debugging. Where the target uses another external power source the board will convert signals to the appropriate levels.

AVR Dragon uses the AVR Studio IDE tool suite, which is available free of charge. AVR Studio includes a simulator, assembler and C compiler. It is also the software front-end for all Atmel AVR debugging and programming tools. A flexible and secure firmware upgrade feature allows AVR Studio to easily upgrade the AVR Dragon to support new devices free of charge. AVR Studio can be downloaded from www.atmel.com/avr.

Please note that Atmel’s AVR Dragon is a low-cost development tool and is delivered as pictured with a USB port to connect to a PC; but with no cables, connectors or IC sockets, just header pins. There is no CD contained in the box but all required software is downloadable free from Atmel; users will need to download the latest version of AVR Studio to get started with the AVR Dragon.

More information: http://www.atmel.com/dyn/corporate/view_detail.asp?FileName=AVRDragon_9_18.html http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=3891