The high-performance Microchip picoPower® 8-bit AVR® RISC-based microcontroller combines 16 KB Flash memory, 256B EEPROM, 1 KB SRAM, 18 general purpose I/O lines, 32 general purpose working registers, one 8-bit timer/counter, one 16-bit timer/counter, two full-duplex USARTs with Start Frame Detection, a universal serial interface (USI), I2C slave, internal and external Interrupts, a 12-channel 10-bit A/D converter, programmable watchdog timer with Ultra-Low Power internal oscillator, and four software selectable power saving modes. The device operates between 1.8-5.5 volts. By executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, the device achieves throughputs approaching one MIPS per MHz, balancing power consumption and processing speed.