The ATmega32 is a CMOS 8-bit microcontroller based on the AVR architecture. The AVR architecture was conceived by Alf-Egil Bogen and Vegard Wollan, the two founders of Atmel Norway. It belongs to the family of RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer). The RISC is based on the insight that simplified (as opposed to complex) instructions can provide higher performance if this simplicity enables much faster execution of each instruction.
AVR stands for Alf (Egil Bogen) and Vegard (Wollan) 's Risc processor. It is a 8-bit RISC single chip microcontroller which was developed by Atmel in 1996. The AVR was one of the first microcontroller families to use on-chip flash memory for program storage, as opposed to one-time programmable ROM, EPROM, or EEPROM used by other microcontrollers at the time. It is a modified Harvard architecture machine where program and data is stored in separate physical memory systems that appear in different address spaces, but having the ability to read data items from program memory using special instructions. By combining an 8-bit RISC CPU with In-System Self-Programmable Flash on a monolithic chip, the Atmel ATmega32 is a powerful microcontroller that provides a highly-flexible and cost-effective solution to many embedded control applications. The AVR ATmega32 truly is a robot programmer's delight!!
