3.
Atmel AVR CPU
3.1
Features
8/16-bit, high-performance Atmel AVR RISC CPU
142 instructions
Hardware multiplier
32x8-bit registers directly connected to the ALU
Stack in RAM
Stack pointer accessible in I/O memory space
Direct addressing of up to 16MB of program memory and 16MB of data memory
True 16/24-bit access to 16/24-bit I/O registers
Efficient support for 8-, 16-, and 32-bit arithmetic
Configuration change protection of system-critical features
3.2
3.3
Overview
All Atmel AVR XMEGA devices use the 8/16-bit AVR CPU. The main function of the CPU is to execute the code and
perform all calculations. The CPU is able to access memories, perform calculations, control peripherals, and execute the
program in the flash memory. Interrupt handling is described in a separate section, “Interrupts and Programmable
Multilevel Interrupt Controller” on page 112.
Architectural Overview
In order to maximize performance and parallelism, the AVR CPU uses a Harvard architecture with separate memories
and buses for program and data. Instructions in the program memory are executed with single-level pipelining. While one
instruction is being executed, the next instruction is pre-fetched from the program memory. This enables instructions to
be executed on every clock cycle. For a summary of all AVR instructions, refer to “Instruction Set Summary” on page
343. For details of all AVR instructions, refer to http://www.atmel.com/avr.
Figure 3-1. Block Diagram of the AVR CPU Architecture
XMEGA C [MANUAL]
Atmel-8465H-AVR-XMEGA C-12/2014
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