The high-performance Atmel picoPower 8-bit AVR RISC-based microcontroller combines 16KB ISP flash with read-while-write capabilities, 512B EEPROM, 1KB SRAM, 53 general purpose I/O lines, 32 general purpose working registers, JTAG (IEEE 1149.1 compliant) interface for boundary-scan, on-chip debugging and programming, three flexible timer/counters with compare modes, internal and external interrupts, serial programmable USART, USI with start condition detector, an 8-channel 10-bit A/D converter, programmable watchdog timer with internal oscillator, SPI serial port, and five software selectable power saving modes. The device operates between 2.7-5.5 volts.

By executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, the device achieves throughputs approaching 1 MIPS per MHz, balancing power consumption and processor speed.