Electronic – What’s the difference between ATMega1284 and ATMega1284p

atmelmicrocontroller

I want to buy an Atmega1284p, doing a research on my local hardware seller (RS), I've found two models, the Atmega1284p-pu and the Atmega1284-pu. Reading the specs I don't see any difference (maybe I am missing something).

The only thing I saw is that Atmega1284-pu has the window to clear the memory using UV light. I really want to understand the difference, because one of them is cheaper and this will affect my criteria.

Best Answer

The p stands for picoPower. It uses less power than the normal chip.

Atmel picoPower devices can operate down to 1.62V while still maintaining all functionality, including analog functions. They have short wake-up time, with multiple wake-up sources and multiple sleep modes.

only thing I saw was a difference in hardware, the Atmega1284-pu have the window that allow to clear the memory using UV light.

I don't believe this is correct, although from the link you provided it does look that way. I think that company just uses that picture as a default picture, not an actual picture of the device.

There are a couple other options that Atmel uses when labeling their chips, you can read more about it in my post here.

Atmel part number format

The letter before the dash (-) is the Option Designator and means:

  • P   "Picopower" low-power parts
  • A   Newer Fabrication process, lower voltage, lower power, non-Atmel fabricated parts with possibly more noise on A/D inputs
  • V   Low-voltage, lower clock frequency parts before "A" came along
  • and nothing is the default part
Related Topic