1.2
System Overview
Figure 1-1. Circuit Overview
SRC, FRC
Oscillators
Supply
Reset
AVR CPU
RF
Front End
RFIN
Rx DSP
DATA BUS
XTO
Port B (8)
Port C (6)
PB[7..0]
(SPI)
PC[5..0]
XTAL
Figure 1-1 shows an overview of the main functional blocks of the Atmel® ATA8210/15. External control of the
Atmel ATA8210/15 is performed through the SPI pins SCK, MOSI, MISO, and NSS on port B. The configuration of the
Atmel ATA8210/15 is stored in the EEPROM and a large portion of the functionality is defined by the firmware located in the
ROM and processed by the AVR®. An SPI command can trigger the AVR to configure the hardware according to settings
that are stored in the EEPROM and start up a given system mode (e.g., RXMode, or PollingMode). Internal events such as
“Start of Telegram” or “FIFO empty” are signaled to an external microcontroller on pin 28 (PB6/EVENT).
During the start-up of a service, the relevant part of the EEPROM content is copied to the SRAM. This allows faster access
by the AVR during the subsequent processing steps and eliminates the need to write to the EEPROM during runtime
because parameters can be modified directly in the SRAM. As a consequence the user does not need to observe the
EEPROM read/write cycle limitations.
It is important to note that all PWRON and NPWRON pins (PC1..5, PB4, PB7) are active in OFFMode. This means that even
if the Atmel ATA8210/15 is in OFFMode and the DVCC voltage is switched off, the power management circuitry within the
Atmel ATA8210/15 biases these pins with VS.
AVR ports can be used as button inputs, external LNA supply voltage (RX_ACTIVE), LED drivers, EVENT pin, switching
control for additional SPDT switches, general purpose digital inputs, or wake-up inputs, etc. Some functionality of these ports
is already implemented in the firmware and can be activated by adequate EEPROM configurations. Other functionality is
available only through custom software residing in the 20Kbyte Flash program memory (Atmel ATA8210).
4
ATA8210/ATA8215 [SUMMARY DATASHEET]
9344CS–INDCO–09/14