Atmel Corporation has announced sampling of the Atmel SAM4SD32, the industry's first 2MB embedded Flash ARM Cortex-M4 processor-based microcontroller (MCU).

Atmel's SAM4SD32 offers low power consumption at 200uA/MHz in active mode when running at 120MHz, the company said.

With 2MB of embedded Flash, the SAM4SD32 is targeted at industrial and consumer applications requiring increased program memory, data storage and low power consumption. Such applications include wireless thermostats, GPS sport watches, smart meters and 1D bar code readers. Wired and wireless communication stacks, multi-language and multi-applications support, and data logging requirements are driving the need for higher memory densities in these applications.

Atmel's SAM4SD32 runs at a high-performance 120MHz operating frequency and features cache memory for accelerated code execution out of Flash. In addition, the ARM Cortex-M4 processor-based device integrates code protection features, 160KB of SRAM and dual-bank Flash for safe in-field firmware upgrades. The SAM4SD32 will be available in a new smaller VFBGA100 7x7mm package option.

The SAM4SD32 is supported by the SAM4S-EK2, a full-featured evaluation kit that enables fast development and code evaluation. The SAM4S-EK2 is supported by the recently launched Atmel Studio 6 integrated development environment (IDE), which significantly accelerates the design process while also reducing the overall cost of creating new designs because it includes professional-quality development tools and Atmel Software Framework, and is free of charge. With Atmel Software Framework, designers get a large library of proven and free source code -including over 1,100 project examples.

"We are continuing to expand our ARM portfolio of devices for higher performance applications and growing memory requirements in the consumer and industrial segments," said Ingar Fredriksen, sr. director of microcontrollers, Atmel Corporation. "These new products with the latest Cortex-M4 core will ensure designers have, from our comprehensive portfolio, all the right devices they need for their unique design requirements."

The Atmel SAM4SD32 is sampling now with general availability in September 2012.