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6399A–DRMSD–13-Oct-08

ATSAM2553

Figure 1-1.

Typical Application

2.

Main Features

The ATSAM2553 provides a new generation of integrated solutions for electronic musical instru-

ments. The ATSAM2553 includes all key circuitry into a single silicon chip: sound

synthesizer/processor, 16-bit control processor, interface with keyboards, switches, sliders,

LEDs, LCD display, etc.

The synthesis/sound processing core of the ATSAM2553 is taken from the SAM97xx series,

whose quality has already been demonstrated through dozens of different musical products:

E.Pianos, home keyboards, professional keyboards, classical organs, sound expanders. The

maximum polyphony is 64 voices without effects. A typical application will be 38-voice polyphony

with reverb, chorus, 4-band equalizer and surround.

The ATSAM2553 is directly compatible with most available musical keyboards. This includes

configuration options for spring or rubber type contacts, common anode or common cathode

type matrix. A 64 µs timing accuracy for velocity detection provides a very reliable dynamic

response even with low cost unweighted keyboards. The time between contacts is coded with

256 steps on a logarithmic time scale, then converted by software to a 128-step MIDI scale

according to the type of keyboard and a selected keyboard sensitivity.

The ATSAM2553 can handle directly up to 176 switches. Switches, organized in matrix form,

require only a serial diode. Up to 88 LEDs can be directly controlled by the ATSAM2553 in a

time multiplexed way. Additional LEDs can be connected through additional external shift regis-

ters using the GPIO lines (general purpose I/O) of the ATSAM2553. The built-in analog to digital

converter of the ATSAM2553 allows connecting continuous controllers like pitch-bend wheel,

modulation, volume sliders, tempo sliders, etc. Up to 16 sliders can be connected.

The ATSAM2553 can be directly connected to most LCD displays through an 8-bit dedicated

data bus and 3 control signals.

Configuration options allow the ATSAM2553 to cover a wide range of musical products, from the

lowest cost keyboard to the high range digital piano, thanks to flexible memory and I/O organiza-

tion: built-in 64K bytes RAM, up to 64M bytes external memory for firmware, orchestrations and

PCM data. The external memory can be ROM, RAM or FLASH. Memory types can be mixed,

but for most applications there is no need for external RAM memory as the built-in 64K bytes

ATSAM2553

DAC

• Keyboards

• Switches

• Leds

• LCD display

• Sliders

• Midi in/out

ROM