Getting Started with Atmel SAM D20

[whalphen]

I'm considering using an Atmel SAM D20 in a design and would like recommendations on tools, especially the hardware for programming and debugging.  I have extensive experience with the PIC processors.  This will be my first time to do a design with an Atmel microcontroller.

Thanks.

[ataradov]

Atmel-ICE is a great tool, but there are cheaper options that may work as well depending on your setup. If you want to use Atmel Studio, then Atmel-ICE is probably the best choice.

I also have a set of simple bare-metal starer projects, if that's your thing - https://github.com/ataradov/mcu-starter-projects/

Also, I highly recommend going with D21, even if you don't need USB. D21 is better in every possible way, for small and medium size projects, the price difference will be compensated with lack of frustration.

[whalphen]

Thanks for the advice -- and the starter projects.  I'll take a look at the D21.

[Simon]

Hm I've been looking at the D20 as well. What is the difference with the D21 ?

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[ataradov]

D20 is the first Cortex-M0+ product from Atmel. A lot of lessons have been learned, a lot of things have been improved since then. D20 feels somewhat different from all following Cortex-M0+ devices.

It is not a bad device, some things are just a bit weird feeling. Some registers have strange bit assignments, this sort of stuff. Nothing you can't live with, but D21 is more polished, includes a lot of improvements based on feedback from the D20.

Option for USB is also nice. It is extremely easy to use and requires no external components (not even a crystal).

[Simon]

Ah, thanks for the warning, so it will be the D21 Datasheet I'll be using for a DOS attack on the printer at work

[ataradov]

Also, if you don't need a lot of pins, have a look at D11. I absolutely love them in SOIC-14 package for less than a dollar. I always keep a stock on hand for random projects. I basically use them as more powerful version of Arduino, but with potential to actually go into real products.

My GitHub has a lot of projects based on D11, so there is plenty of bare-metal examples.

[Simon]

hm I do indeed use a lot of Attiny24 in a 14 pin package so the idea is attractive as I have seen them before and yes they are the same price as a tiny pretty much. But I am also trying to come up with a one size fits all so I'm thinking a low end 32 pin chip to replace a mega might be the way to go.

[ataradov]

D11 and D21 are very similar from a software point of view, so switching between them is easy, so there is no harm going with a bigger package first.

Those things are amazing. Here I did a bit of over-clocking and got a 100+ MHz signal generator and 30+ MHz frequency counter out of D11: https://github.com/ataradov/siggen . D20 would not be able to do this.

And yes, for the same price you get 100x the performance