Specially designed for lamp ballast and motor control applications, this high-performance Atmel 8-bit AVR RISC-based microcontroller combines 8KB ISP flash memory with read-while-write capabilities, 512B EEPROM, 512-Byte SRAM, 53 general purpose I/O lines, 32 general purpose working registers, 2 12-bit high speed power stage controllers, two flexible timer/counters with compare modes and PWM, an 8-channel/10-bit A/D converter with two differential input stages with programmable gain, programmable watchdog timer with internal oscillator, SPI serial port, an on-chip debugging system, and four 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.