Rainbow Electronics ATmega128L - Manual (Page 23)

23
ATmega128(L)
2467B–09/01
Preventing EEPROM
Corruption During periods of low V
CC,
the EEPROM data can be corrupted because the supply volt-
age is too low for the CPU and the EEPROM to operate properly. These issues are the
same as for board level systems using EEPROM, and the same design solutions should
be applied.
An EEPROM data corruption can be caused by two situations when the voltage is too
low. First, a regular write sequence to the EEPROM requires a minimum voltage to
operate correctly. Secondly, the CPU itself can execute instructions incorrectly, if the
supply voltage is too low.
E EP R O M d a t a c o r r u p t i o n ca n e a s i l y b e a v o id e d b y f o ll o w i n g t h i s d e si g n
recommendation:
Keep the AVR RESET active (low) during periods of insufficient power supply voltage.
This can be done by enabling the internal Brown-out Detector (BOD). If the detection
level of the internal BOD does not match the needed detection level, an external low
V
CC
Reset Protection circuit can be used. If a reset occurs while a write operation is in
progress, the write operation will be completed provided that the power supply voltage is
sufficient.
Assembly Code Example
EEPROM_read:
; Wait for completion of previous write
sbic EECR,EEWE
rjmp EEPROM_read
; Set up address (r18:r17) in address register
out EEARH, r18
out EEARL, r17
; Start eeprom read by writing EERE
sbi EECR,EERE
; Read data from data register
in r16,EEDR
ret
C Code Example
unsigned char EEPROM_read(unsigned int uiAddress)
{
/* Wait for completion of previous write */
while(EECR & (1<
;
/* Set up address register */
EEAR = uiAddress;
/* Start eeprom read by writing EERE */
EECR |= (1<
/* Return data from data register */
return EEDR;
}