Until recently I used for my hobby electronics projectS two types of microchips:
- Atmel Atmega 328 in case I needed at least ten in/out pins;
- Atmel Attiny85 if five or less in/out pins was enough.
But recently I discovered some more members in Atmel family of devices: Attiny261/461/861. These microchips are not actually that tiny: 20 pins providing 16 in/out signals. On the photo below you can compare Attiny461 in the middle to Attiny85 on the left and Atmega 328 on the right.
It occupies less space on the breadboard than Atmega 328, but still big enough for many hobby projects. But what makes this chip outstanding is the fact how convenient it is for breadboard prototyping. Look at pinout of this chip in PDIP package:
As you can see all bits of the A register are on the right side, all bits of the B register are on the left side. Bits are numerated from the top to the bottom. Very easy to remember and really convenient! And all pins required to be connected to AVRISP MKii programmer interface are located on the left side of the chip. That allowed me to make flat vertical adapter to use it on the breadboard. On the picture below you can see circuit with chip, two multi-color LEDs and adapter.
I believe AttinyX61 find some more usage in my upcoming projects.
