SAN JOSE, California, January 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- Atmel expands its QTouch product offering with a Touch-Library for AVR 
microcontrollers

Atmel(R) Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) -- an industry leader in capacitive
touch sensing products, announced today the availability of its advanced
Touch-library that resides on the microcontroller instead of a separate chip
resulting in a highly cost effective solution, which will be provided at no
additional cost. The library consists of precompiled and verified binary
files that can be configured individually as discrete keys or can be combined
at will, as groups, to form wheels and sliders.

Atmel offers a complete development environment that now makes it easy
for a user to develop a touch system based on their AVR(R) microcontroller.
The AVR core combined with Atmel's QTouch(TM) technology provides the
industry's most robust touch solution, particularly in demanding
applications. This has multiple advantages for the designer, for example a
high signal to noise ratio that improves the systems design margin, increases
EMC performance and provides high ESD tolerance. In addition, designers can
address applications where reliability is required, such as stovetops, wall
ovens, automotive applications and where high moisture levels are present.

"Atmel has supplied fixed function and custom capacitive multitouch
screen solutions to mobile handsets and other high profile, high volume
applications. Through the extension of this technology to a user-driven
Touch-library we are making superior touch technology available for all
customers and applications," said Ingar Fredriksen, Atmel's AVR Product
Marketing Director. "Requests for AVR microcontrollers with integrated touch
are an increasingly important part of the UI related microcontroller
business. The Touch-library targets this market, and further strengthens
Atmel's position as the technology leader in touch sensor solutions," he
continued.

Atmel has a broad range of AVR based microcontrollers which allows the
designer to develop a combined Touch sensor / user application at the most
appropriate price point very rapidly, ensuring that the best price /
performance is achievable today. Atmel's 15 years of experience of design and
developing touch sensor technology combined with the industry leading AVR
technology allow users access to the best possible design options at the
lowest overall cost of ownership.

Availability and Pricing

The Touch-library is available now for download at the product web page
together with AVR QTouch Studio, royalty free front end software supporting
the two available demonstration boards TS2080A and TS2080B, supporting
ATmega88, ATtiny88, ATmega88PA, ATmega168P and ATmega328P, respectively.

About Atmel

Atmel is a worldwide leader in the design and manufacture of
microcontrollers, advanced logic, mixed-signal, nonvolatile memory and radio
frequency (RF) components. Leveraging one of the industry's broadest
intellectual property (IP) technology portfolios, Atmel is able to provide
the electronics industry with complete system solutions focused on consumer,
industrial, security, communications, computing and automotive markets.

(C) 2009 Atmel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Atmel(R), Atmel logo and
combinations thereof, and AVR(R) and others are registered trademarks,
QTouch(TM) and others are trademarks of Atmel Corporation or its
subsidiaries. Other terms and product names may be trademarks of others.

Information:

Atmel's Touch-library product information may be retrieved at
http://www.atmel.com/touchswlib

Video podcasts introducing Atmel Touch-library are available on the AVR
TV website at http://www.avrtv.com.

Press Contact:
    Helen Perlegos, Public Relations
    Tel: +1-408-487-2963, Email: helen.perlegos@atmel.com