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Atmel and H&D Wireless are collaborating to deliver an IEEE#802.11 b/g Wi-Fi solution for Atmel’s 32-bit AVR microcontrollers. H&D Wireless will provide the SPB104 Wi-Fi extension board, which connects to the AVR32 UC3 evaluation kits through the SD card socket. The Wi-Fi solution has a power consumption five times less than similar devices.

To use the Wi-Fi capabilities of the AVR32 UC3 microcontroller, customers need an ATEXWIFI evaluation board, an AVR32 EVK1104 or EVK1105 evaluation kit, and free AVR32 Software Framework version 1.5, which includes Wi-Fi drivers and TCP/IP stacks.

Atmel says its picoPower technology gives the new Wi-Fi solution the lowest power consumption of any of the industry’s modern microcontrollers. The ACR32 MCU can uses 0.48-mW/MHz  in active mode, 1.5-µA with RTC running, and less than 100-nA in shutdown mode.

The H&D Wireless modules are compatible for the 802.11 b/g spectrums with a throughput of 1 to 54 Mbits/s. The device offers a 150 µW sleep power consumption, more than two years of battery life, 220 mW RX power, and an interface compatible to SDIO and SPI. The RF power output is 7 to 8 dB higher than the average on the market at +17.5 dBm.