Atmel’s new Tiny AVR: a CPU that runs on a single AA battery
Most mobile electronics runs on around 3V. For example your cell phone typically used a 3.7V Li Ion battery. For some applications this much battery is not wanted, or feasible. A single AA battery produces 1.2-1.5Volts, but as it is used this voltage will drop. Atmel has just released a new line of their Tiny AVR (RISC microcontrollers that can run at voltages down to 0.7V. Internally they are a 3V design, but they include a boost converter that can boost voltages from 0.7V to 1.8V to the 3V needed by the core, as well as the 4k of flash and 64bytes of on-board EEPROM.
ATtiny43u
All of this, in a 20 pin package running at up to 8MHz and costing a mere $1. This is why there is a microcontroller in almost every piece of electronics.
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