ATmega16 – Next Generation Microcontroller

To know more about ATmega16 first, we need to know some history about the microcontroller. Actually what it is? Well as we human beings we need a brain to live here and it should function in a manner. Same as this to run an embedded based device or any electronic equipment it requires a brain i.e., a Microcontroller. It is a self-controlled device that has a processor, memory unit, programmable memory (like RAM, PROM, etc), etc. The first microcontroller was invented by Gary Boone from Texas Instruments. As technology increases day by day and we all prefer the devices which are smaller in size and extraordinary performance. So, It is the latest microcontroller that comes from Atmel’s Mega AVR family. Up to now, 8051micro controller is the superhero in all microcontrollers it means it’s the long-lived microcontroller because still some devices are tremendously working on this 8051 microcontroller. Here will discuss what is ATmega16, its features, pin diagram, interfacing, and its datasheet.

What is ATmega16?

Atmel Corporation manufactured the ATmega16 microcontroller which comes under Atmel’s Advanced Virtual RISC family. It has an advanced RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) system and a high-performance microcontroller. This is the advanced version of the 8051 microcontrollers which has the features beat the 8051 microcontroller features. It’s a computer inbuilt with CPU, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, Timers, Counters, ADC and last four 8 bit ports like port A, port B, port C, port D. Each port has 8 input and output pins for extra performance. In the below section, we can observe the features of this microcontroller.

Features

The features of ATmega16 include the following.

It is a 40 pin microcontroller. Each pin has its specifications. These are supports either input or output connections and these are divided into four ports. They are port A, B, C, D. The forty pins are categorized under these four ports. We can observe in its pin diagram.

8-bit microcontroller – ATmega16 is a high-performance microcontroller and it can process 8-bit data at a time. It takes 8 bit of data from memory. And utilize low power consumption.

• Its architecture based on enhanced RISC architecture. It has inbuilt with 131 powerful instructions. These instructions can be single cycle execution for an easy process.
• It can process up to 16 million instructions per second (MIPS). Its maximum operating frequency of 16MHz.
• It has 32 built-in registers. These registers help connect the CPU to the external peripheral devices.
• ATmega16 has come up with the most of necessity peripherals like ADC (analog to digital converter), USART, SPI, and an analog comparator. Due to these inbuilt features, it would be more preferable and cost-effective than others.

Memory – It has 16KB of programmable flash memory, SRAM (Static Read Access Memory) has 1 KB internal memory, 512 bytes of EEPROM. Due to this it can capable of 10,000write/erase cycles respectively.

Two 8 bit timer/counter and One 16 bit timer/counter – Timers can measure the timing of operation in synchronous with the system/external clock. And counters are for the count the events at all intervals.

ATmega16 has Four PWM Channels – These helpful for reconstructing the analog signal at load levels concerning digital signals.

Programmable USART – It can be known as Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter. This USART provides asynchronous communication between a transmitter to a receiver.

Special Microcontrollers Features – Internal RC oscillator, power-on reset, and programmable brownout detection, both way of interrupt sources and six different sleep modes.

I/O and Packages – It has 32 programmable I/O lines for different usage.

Operating Voltage – The operating voltage ranges from 4.5V- 5.5V

Power Consumption – It can utilize 3v voltage at 1MHz frequency at 25°C

ATmega16 Pin Diagram

This microcontroller has 40 pins and each pin has its importance. In these 40 pins, I/O pins are 32. And these are categorized into 4 ports. Each port having 8 I/O pins.

• 4 PORT-A 8 pins (pin 33-40)
• 1 PORT-B 8 pins (pin 1-8)
• 3 PORT-C 8 pins (pin 22-29)
• 2 PORT-D 8 pins (pin 14-21)

PORT-A: Here, PIN 33 to 40 are coming to PORT – A. This port A acts as an analog input to A/D converter. Port A can be used as 8 bit bidirectional I/O port. It has an internal pull-up resistor.

PORT – B: It has the pins from 1 to 8. This port B is used for I/O bidirectional pins.

PORT – C: This port C having eight I/O bidirectional pins.

PORT – D: Port D pins can be used as input or output pin. The extra peripherals like PWM channels, timer/counter, USART are connected to this port.

RESET – Pin 9 is for Reset pin.

Pin 10 – This pin is used for power supply purposes. By this pin, a power supply of 5V can be connected to the microcontroller.

Pin 12 & Pin 13 – High clock pulses can be generated by a crystal oscillator. And this crystal oscillator is connected to these pins. This microcontroller works at the 1MHz frequency.

ATmega16 Data Sheet

A datasheet is a piece of complete information about that device. These data sheets can be released by the vendors. Here, the ATmega16 data-sheet can be found on the below link.

ATmega16 Programming

There are multiple ways to program the ATmega16 and AVR microcontrollers. Here are the ways to do the ATmega16 programming. The following methods are helpful for how to burn the code into an ATmega16 microcontroller. They are:

• Installing of USBASP version 2.0 programmer drivers on the computers.
• It can be done with the Atmel studio installer package.
• Designing and updating Sketch into Atmega16.
• Finally can be completed by ATmega16 with one LED and Oscillator circuit.

Applications

Because of its advanced features, ATmega16 has a wide range of applications. It’s a small size computer. Here are some of the ATmega16 applications are

ATmega16 has mainly used in embedded systems, medical equipment, home automation devices, automobile devices, industrial automation, home appliances, security systems and temperature-controlled devices, motor control systems, digital signal processing, peripheral interface systems and Arduino based projects and many more.

ATmega16 is the most popular and latest controller in AVR series microcontrollers. ATmega16 is an advanced version of the microcontroller category. ATmega16 has six different types of sleep modes. These are very helpful to save power when it is triggered. It has a huge memory unit which is very sufficient to do a lot of operations in a within a short time and we can do projects with ATmega16 interfacing like, GSM module interfacing with ATmega16, GPS module interfacing with ATmega16, Bluetooth module interfacing with ATmega16, Temperature sensor interfacing with ATmega16, Wi-Fi module interfacing with ATmega16 and many more.