Atmel XMEGA-A1 Xplained Evaluation Board ATAVRXPLAIN ATAVRXPLAIN Data Sheet

Product codes
ATAVRXPLAIN
Page of 13
 
AVR1010 
8267B-AVR-12/10 
It is recommended to use an external 32kHz crystal with X32KLPM enabled. This 
gives lower power consumption than the ULP, yet greater accuracy than the internal 
RC oscillator. This oscillator may also be used as the system clock source, if such a 
low frequency is acceptable. 
Table 2-2. Examples of accuracy and current consumption for RTC w/ clock sources. 
Oscillator  
Accuracy
3
 Current 
consumption
1,3
 
ULP +/- 
30% 
1µA 
RC32k +/- 
1%  30µA 
TOSC (32 kHz XTAL)
2
 
+/- 0,001% (10 ppm) 
0.6µA 
Notes: 
1.  At 3V operating voltage. 
2.  Depends on e.g. quality of crystal.  
3.  Please refer to the datasheet for exact values and conditions, the values stated 
here are meant as guideline only. 
 
For Atmel
®
 AVR
®
 XMEGA-families with the battery backup module and 32-bit RTC, 
only the 32kHz crystal oscillator may be used as clock source. In these devices, the 
RTC is left running regardless of sleep. 
Minimize power consumption by clocking the RTC at 1kHz with an external crystal in 
low power mode. 
2.9 State of Digital I/O Pins 
All digital I/O pins are by default floating to avoid hardware conflicts. However, since 
the pins have digital input buffers it is important to ensure that the level on an I/O pin 
is well-defined to avoid sporadic internal switching and leakage. The leakage caused 
by floating I/O is relatively small and is mainly observable in sleep, but can be 
minimized by ensuring that the state of the pins is either high or low. 
If a pin is connected to an analog source, the digital input buffer on that pin should be 
disabled even if it is not configured as an input. This is done by use of the PINnCTRL 
registers for the individual ports. Please refer to the device manual for information on 
how to do this configuration. 
To minimize power consumption, enable pull-up or -down on all unused pins, and 
disable the digital input buffer on pins that are connected to analog sources. 
2.10 Virtual Port Registers 
To minimize the time spent in ACTIVE mode, virtual port registers can be used. This 
allows for single-cycle access with I/O memory specific instructions like IN, OUT and 
bit manipulation for the registers DIR, IN, OUT and INTFLAGS for up to four I/O ports. 
Use the Virtual Port registers for I/O port access to minimize power consumption. 
2.11 General Purpose I/O Registers 
Another way to minimize the time spent in ACTIVE mode is to use the GPIO registers 
for storage of variables. This is also due to the possibility of single-cycle access with 
I/O memory specific instructions.