ATmega16(L)

General Purpose The Register File is optimized for the AVR Enhanced RISC instruction set. In order to achieve
Register File the required performance and flexibility, the following input/output schemes are supported by the
Register File:
• One 8-bit output operand and one 8-bit result input
• Two 8-bit output operands and one 8-bit result input
• Two 8-bit output operands and one 16-bit result input
• One 16-bit output operand and one 16-bit result input
Figure 4 shows the structure of the 32 general purpose working registers in the CPU.

Figure 4. AVR CPU General Purpose Working Registers

7 0 Addr.

R0 $00
R1 $01
R2 $02
…
R13 $0D
General R14 $0E
Purpose R15 $0F
Working R16 $10
Registers R17 $11
…
R26 $1A X-register Low Byte
R27 $1B X-register High Byte
R28 $1C Y-register Low Byte
R29 $1D Y-register High Byte
R30 $1E Z-register Low Byte
R31 $1F Z-register High Byte

Most of the instructions operating on the Register File have direct access to all registers, and
most of them are single cycle instructions.
As shown in Figure 4, each register is also assigned a data memory address, mapping them
directly into the first 32 locations of the user Data Space. Although not being physically imple-
mented as SRAM locations, this memory organization provides great flexibility in access of the
registers, as the X-, Y-, and Z-pointer Registers can be set to index any register in the file.

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The X-register, Y- The registers R26..R31 have some added functions to their general purpose usage. These reg-
register and Z-register isters are 16-bit address pointers for indirect addressing of the Data Space. The three indirect
address registers X, Y, and Z are defined as described in Figure 5.

Figure 5. The X-register, Y-register, and Z-register

15 XH XL 0
X - register 7 0 7 0
R27 ($1B) R26 ($1A)

15 YH YL 0
Y - register 7 0 7 0
R29 ($1D) R28 ($1C)

15 ZH ZL 0
Z - register 7 0 7 0
R31 ($1F) R30 ($1E)

In the different addressing modes these address registers have functions as fixed displacement,
automatic increment, and automatic decrement (see the Instruction Set Reference for details).

Stack Pointer The Stack is mainly used for storing temporary data, for storing local variables and for storing
return addresses after interrupts and subroutine calls. The Stack Pointer Register always points
to the top of the Stack. Note that the Stack is implemented as growing from higher memory loca-
tions to lower memory locations. This implies that a Stack PUSH command decreases the Stack
Pointer. If software reads the Program Counter from the Stack after a call or an interrupt, unused
bits (15:13) should be masked out.
The Stack Pointer points to the data SRAM Stack area where the Subroutine and Interrupt
Stacks are located. This Stack space in the data SRAM must be defined by the program before
any subroutine calls are executed or interrupts are enabled. The Stack Pointer must be set to
point above $60. The Stack Pointer is decremented by one when data is pushed onto the Stack
with the PUSH instruction, and it is decremented by two when the return address is pushed onto
the Stack with subroutine call or interrupt. The Stack Pointer is incremented by one when data is
popped from the Stack with the POP instruction, and it is incremented by two when data is
popped from the Stack with return from subroutine RET or return from interrupt RETI.
The AVR Stack Pointer is implemented as two 8-bit registers in the I/O space. The number of
bits actually used is implementation dependent. Note that the data space in some implementa-
tions of the AVR architecture is so small that only SPL is needed. In this case, the SPH Register
will not be present.
Bit 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8
SP15 SP14 SP13 SP12 SP11 SP10 SP9 SP8 SPH
SP7 SP6 SP5 SP4 SP3 SP2 SP1 SP0 SPL
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Read/Write R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W
R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W
Initial Value 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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Instruction This section describes the general access timing concepts for instruction execution. The AVR
Execution Timing CPU is driven by the CPU clock clkCPU, directly generated from the selected clock source for the
chip. No internal clock division is used.
Figure 6 shows the parallel instruction fetches and instruction executions enabled by the Har-
vard architecture and the fast-access Register File concept. This is the basic pipelining concept
to obtain up to 1 MIPS per MHz with the corresponding unique results for functions per cost,
functions per clocks, and functions per power-unit.

Figure 6. The Parallel Instruction Fetches and Instruction Executions

T1 T2 T3 T4

clkCPU
1st Instruction Fetch
1st Instruction Execute
2nd Instruction Fetch
2nd Instruction Execute
3rd Instruction Fetch
3rd Instruction Execute
4th Instruction Fetch

Figure 7 shows the internal timing concept for the Register File. In a single clock cycle an ALU
operation using two register operands is executed, and the result is stored back to the destina-
tion register.

Figure 7. Single Cycle ALU Operation

T1 T2 T3 T4

clkCPU
Total Execution Time

Register Operands Fetch

ALU Operation Execute

Result Write Back

Reset and The AVR provides several different interrupt sources. These interrupts and the separate reset
Interrupt Handling vector each have a separate program vector in the program memory space. All interrupts are
assigned individual enable bits which must be written logic one together with the Global Interrupt
Enable bit in the Status Register in order to enable the interrupt. Depending on the Program
Counter value, interrupts may be automatically disabled when Boot Lock bits BLB02 or BLB12
are programmed. This feature improves software security. See the section “Memory Program-
ming” on page 259 for details.
The lowest addresses in the program memory space are by default defined as the Reset and
Interrupt Vectors. The complete list of vectors is shown in “Interrupts” on page 45. The list also
determines the priority levels of the different interrupts. The lower the address the higher is the
priority level. RESET has the highest priority, and next is INT0 – the External Interrupt Request

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0. The Interrupt Vectors can be moved to the start of the Boot Flash section by setting the IVSEL
bit in the General Interrupt Control Register (GICR). Refer to “Interrupts” on page 45 for more
information. The Reset Vector can also be moved to the start of the boot Flash section by pro-
gramming the BOOTRST Fuse, see “Boot Loader Support – Read-While-Write Self-
Programming” on page 246.
When an interrupt occurs, the Global Interrupt Enable I-bit is cleared and all interrupts are dis-
abled. The user software can write logic one to the I-bit to enable nested interrupts. All enabled
interrupts can then interrupt the current interrupt routine. The I-bit is automatically set when a
Return from Interrupt instruction – RETI – is executed.
There are basically two types of interrupts. The first type is triggered by an event that sets the
Interrupt Flag. For these interrupts, the Program Counter is vectored to the actual Interrupt Vec-
tor in order to execute the interrupt handling routine, and hardware clears the corresponding
Interrupt Flag. Interrupt Flags can also be cleared by writing a logic one to the flag bit position(s)
to be cleared. If an interrupt condition occurs while the corresponding interrupt enable bit is
cleared, the Interrupt Flag will be set and remembered until the interrupt is enabled, or the flag is
cleared by software. Similarly, if one or more interrupt conditions occur while the Global Interrupt
Enable bit is cleared, the corresponding Interrupt Flag(s) will be set and remembered until the
global interrupt enable bit is set, and will then be executed by order of priority.
The second type of interrupts will trigger as long as the interrupt condition is present. These
interrupts do not necessarily have Interrupt Flags. If the interrupt condition disappears before the
interrupt is enabled, the interrupt will not be triggered.
When the AVR exits from an interrupt, it will always return to the main program and execute one
more instruction before any pending interrupt is served.
Note that the Status Register is not automatically stored when entering an interrupt routine, nor
restored when returning from an interrupt routine. This must be handled by software.
When using the CLI instruction to disable interrupts, the interrupts will be immediately disabled.
No interrupt will be executed after the CLI instruction, even if it occurs simultaneously with the
CLI instruction. The following example shows how this can be used to avoid interrupts during the
timed EEPROM write sequence.
Assembly Code Example
in r16, SREG ; store SREG value
cli ; disable interrupts during timed sequence
sbi EECR, EEMWE ; start EEPROM write
sbi EECR, EEWE
out SREG, r16 ; restore SREG value (I-bit)

C Code Example
char cSREG;
cSREG = SREG; /* store SREG value */
/* disable interrupts during timed sequence */
_CLI();
EECR |= (1<<EEMWE); /* start EEPROM write */
EECR |= (1<<EEWE);
SREG = cSREG; /* restore SREG value (I-bit) */

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When using the SEI instruction to enable interrupts, the instruction following SEI will be exe-
cuted before any pending interrupts, as shown in this example.
Assembly Code Example
sei ; set global interrupt enable
sleep ; enter sleep, waiting for interrupt
; note: will enter sleep before any pending
; interrupt(s)

C Code Example
_SEI(); /* set global interrupt enable */
_SLEEP(); /* enter sleep, waiting for interrupt */
/* note: will enter sleep before any pending interrupt(s) */

Interrupt Response The interrupt execution response for all the enabled AVR interrupts is four clock cycles mini-
Time mum. After four clock cycles the program vector address for the actual interrupt handling routine
is executed. During this four clock cycle period, the Program Counter is pushed onto the Stack.
The vector is normally a jump to the interrupt routine, and this jump takes three clock cycles. If
an interrupt occurs during execution of a multi-cycle instruction, this instruction is completed
before the interrupt is served. If an interrupt occurs when the MCU is in sleep mode, the interrupt
execution response time is increased by four clock cycles. This increase comes in addition to the
start-up time from the selected sleep mode.
A return from an interrupt handling routine takes four clock cycles. During these four clock
cycles, the Program Counter (two bytes) is popped back from the Stack, the Stack Pointer is
incremented by two, and the I-bit in SREG is set.

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AVR ATmega16 This section describes the different memories in the ATmega16. The AVR architecture has two
main memory spaces, the Data Memory and the Program Memory space. In addition, the
Memories ATmega16 features an EEPROM Memory for data storage. All three memory spaces are linear
and regular.

In-System The ATmega16 contains 16 Kbytes On-chip In-System Reprogrammable Flash memory for pro-
Reprogrammable gram storage. Since all AVR instructions are 16 or 32 bits wide, the Flash is organized as 8K ×
Flash Program 16. For software security, the Flash Program memory space is divided into two sections, Boot
Program section and Application Program section.
Memory
The Flash memory has an endurance of at least 10,000 write/erase cycles. The ATmega16 Pro-
gram Counter (PC) is 13 bits wide, thus addressing the 8K program memory locations. The
operation of Boot Program section and associated Boot Lock bits for software protection are
described in detail in “Boot Loader Support – Read-While-Write Self-Programming” on page
246. “Memory Programming” on page 259 contains a detailed description on Flash data serial
downloading using the SPI pins or the JTAG interface.
Constant tables can be allocated within the entire program memory address space (see the LPM
– Load Program Memory Instruction Description).
Timing diagrams for instruction fetch and execution are presented in “Instruction Execution Tim-
ing” on page 13.

Figure 8. Program Memory Map

$0000

Application Flash Section

Boot Flash Section

$1FFF

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SRAM Data Figure 9 shows how the ATmega16 SRAM Memory is organized.
Memory The lower 1120 Data Memory locations address the Register File, the I/O Memory, and the inter-
nal data SRAM. The first 96 locations address the Register File and I/O Memory, and the next
1024 locations address the internal data SRAM.
The five different addressing modes for the data memory cover: Direct, Indirect with Displace-
ment, Indirect, Indirect with Pre-decrement, and Indirect with Post-increment. In the Register
File, registers R26 to R31 feature the indirect addressing pointer registers.
The direct addressing reaches the entire data space.
The Indirect with Displacement mode reaches 63 address locations from the base address given
by the Y-register or Z-register.
When using register indirect addressing modes with automatic pre-decrement and post-incre-
ment, the address registers X, Y, and Z are decremented or incremented.
The 32 general purpose working registers, 64 I/O Registers, and the 1024 bytes of internal data
SRAM in the ATmega16 are all accessible through all these addressing modes. The Register
File is described in “General Purpose Register File” on page 11.

Figure 9. Data Memory Map

Register File Data Address Space
R0 $0000
R1 $0001
R2 $0002
... ...

R29 $001D
R30 $001E
R31 $001F
I/O Registers
$00 $0020
$01 $0021
$02 $0022
... ...

$3D $005D
$3E $005E
$3F $005F
Internal SRAM
$0060
$0061
...

$045E
$045F

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Data Memory Access This section describes the general access timing concepts for internal memory access. The
Times internal data SRAM access is performed in two clkCPU cycles as described in Figure 10.

Figure 10. On-chip Data SRAM Access Cycles

T1 T2 T3

clkCPU
Address Compute Address Address Valid

Data

Write
WR

Data

Read
RD

Memory Access Instruction Next Instruction

EEPROM Data The ATmega16 contains 512 bytes of data EEPROM memory. It is organized as a separate data
Memory space, in which single bytes can be read and written. The EEPROM has an endurance of at
least 100,000 write/erase cycles. The access between the EEPROM and the CPU is described
in the following, specifying the EEPROM Address Registers, the EEPROM Data Register, and
the EEPROM Control Register.
For a detailed description of SPI, JTAG, and Parallel data downloading to the EEPROM, see
page 273, page 278, and page 262, respectively.

EEPROM Read/Write The EEPROM Access Registers are accessible in the I/O space.
Access
The write access time for the EEPROM is given in Table 1. A self-timing function, however, lets
the user software detect when the next byte can be written. If the user code contains instructions
that write the EEPROM, some precautions must be taken. In heavily filtered power supplies, VCC
is likely to rise or fall slowly on Power-up/down. This causes the device for some period of time
to run at a voltage lower than specified as minimum for the clock frequency used. See “Prevent-
ing EEPROM Corruption” on page 22 for details on how to avoid problems in these situations.
In order to prevent unintentional EEPROM writes, a specific write procedure must be followed.
Refer to the description of the EEPROM Control Register for details on this.
When the EEPROM is read, the CPU is halted for four clock cycles before the next instruction is
executed. When the EEPROM is written, the CPU is halted for two clock cycles before the next
instruction is executed.

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The EEPROM Address

Register – EEARH and Bit 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8
EEARL – – – – – – – EEAR8 EEARH
EEAR7 EEAR6 EEAR5 EEAR4 EEAR3 EEAR2 EEAR1 EEAR0 EEARL
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Read/Write R R R R R R R R/W
R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W
Initial Value 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 X
X X X X X X X X

• Bits 15..9 – Res: Reserved Bits

These bits are reserved bits in the ATmega16 and will always read as zero.

• Bits 8..0 – EEAR8..0: EEPROM Address

The EEPROM Address Registers – EEARH and EEARL – specify the EEPROM address in the
512 bytes EEPROM space. The EEPROM data bytes are addressed linearly between 0 and
511. The initial value of EEAR is undefined. A proper value must be written before the EEPROM
may be accessed.

The EEPROM Data

Register – EEDR Bit 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
MSB LSB EEDR
Read/Write R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W
Initial Value 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

• Bits 7..0 – EEDR7.0: EEPROM Data

For the EEPROM write operation, the EEDR Register contains the data to be written to the
EEPROM in the address given by the EEAR Register. For the EEPROM read operation, the
EEDR contains the data read out from the EEPROM at the address given by EEAR.

The EEPROM Control

Register – EECR Bit 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
– – – – EERIE EEMWE EEWE EERE EECR
Read/Write R R R R R/W R/W R/W R/W
Initial Value 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 0

• Bits 7..4 – Res: Reserved Bits

These bits are reserved bits in the ATmega16 and will always read as zero.

• Bit 3 – EERIE: EEPROM Ready Interrupt Enable

Writing EERIE to one enables the EEPROM Ready Interrupt if the I bit in SREG is set. Writing
EERIE to zero disables the interrupt. The EEPROM Ready interrupt generates a constant inter-
rupt when EEWE is cleared.

• Bit 2 – EEMWE: EEPROM Master Write Enable

The EEMWE bit determines whether setting EEWE to one causes the EEPROM to be written.
When EEMWE is set, setting EEWE within four clock cycles will write data to the EEPROM at
the selected address If EEMWE is zero, setting EEWE will have no effect. When EEMWE has
been written to one by software, hardware clears the bit to zero after four clock cycles. See the
description of the EEWE bit for an EEPROM write procedure.

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• Bit 1 – EEWE: EEPROM Write Enable

The EEPROM Write Enable Signal EEWE is the write strobe to the EEPROM. When address
and data are correctly set up, the EEWE bit must be written to one to write the value into the
EEPROM. The EEMWE bit must be written to one before a logical one is written to EEWE, oth-
erwise no EEPROM write takes place. The following procedure should be followed when writing
the EEPROM (the order of steps 3 and 4 is not essential):
1. Wait until EEWE becomes zero.
2. Wait until SPMEN in SPMCR becomes zero.
3. Write new EEPROM address to EEAR (optional).
4. Write new EEPROM data to EEDR (optional).
5. Write a logical one to the EEMWE bit while writing a zero to EEWE in EECR.
6. Within four clock cycles after setting EEMWE, write a logical one to EEWE.
The EEPROM can not be programmed during a CPU write to the Flash memory. The software
must check that the Flash programming is completed before initiating a new EEPROM write.
Step 2 is only relevant if the software contains a Boot Loader allowing the CPU to program the
Flash. If the Flash is never being updated by the CPU, step 2 can be omitted. See “Boot Loader
Support – Read-While-Write Self-Programming” on page 246 for details about boot
programming.
Caution: An interrupt between step 5 and step 6 will make the write cycle fail, since the
EEPROM Master Write Enable will time-out. If an interrupt routine accessing the EEPROM is
interrupting another EEPROM Access, the EEAR or EEDR reGister will be modified, causing the
interrupted EEPROM Access to fail. It is recommended to have the Global Interrupt Flag cleared
during all the steps to avoid these problems.
When the write access time has elapsed, the EEWE bit is cleared by hardware. The user soft-
ware can poll this bit and wait for a zero before writing the next byte. When EEWE has been set,
the CPU is halted for two cycles before the next instruction is executed.

• Bit 0 – EERE: EEPROM Read Enable

The EEPROM Read Enable Signal – EERE – is the read strobe to the EEPROM. When the cor-
rect address is set up in the EEAR Register, the EERE bit must be written to a logic one to
trigger the EEPROM read. The EEPROM read access takes one instruction, and the requested
data is available immediately. When the EEPROM is read, the CPU is halted for four cycles
before the next instruction is executed.
The user should poll the EEWE bit before starting the read operation. If a write operation is in
progress, it is neither possible to read the EEPROM, nor to change the EEAR Register.
The calibrated Oscillator is used to time the EEPROM accesses. Table 1 lists the typical pro-
gramming time for EEPROM access from the CPU.
Table 1. EEPROM Programming Time
Number of Calibrated RC
Symbol Oscillator Cycles(1) Typ Programming Time
EEPROM write (from CPU) 8448 8.5 ms
Note: 1. Uses 1 MHz clock, independent of CKSEL Fuse setting.
The following code examples show one assembly and one C function for writing to the
EEPROM. The examples assume that interrupts are controlled (for example by disabling inter-
rupts globally) so that no interrupts will occur during execution of these functions. The examples

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