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Arduino Duemilanove upgraded to the ATmega328

David MellisFebruary 28th, 2009

We’re very happy to announce that the Arduino Duemilanove has been upgraded to a more powerful microcontroller: the ATmega328. It’s fully compatible with the previous ATmega168, but with twice the memory. That includes flash memory for storing sketches (32 KB instead of 16 KB), RAM for holding variables (2KB instead of 1KB) and EEPROM for saving data when turning off the board (1 KB instead of 512 bytes). We’ve also raised the speed (in the bootloader) for uploading new sketches from 19200 baud to 57600 baud.

Thanks to some tough negotiating by Gianluca Martino of Arduino and Smart Projects, this won’t raise the price of the board. Look for distributors to roll out the upgraded boards soon. Current Duemilanove or other Arduino boards can be upgraded by replacing the ATmega168 with a bootloaded ATmega328 (you’ll need to buy a pre-bootloaded one or use a hardware programmer). Be sure to select “Arduino w/ ATmega328” from the Tools > Boards menu.

Categories:Hardware

11 Responses to “Arduino Duemilanove upgraded to the ATmega328”

  1. ATmega328 upgrade for the Arduino Duemilanove | Robots.ie Says:

    […] We reported recently that new version of the Arduino software supported the Atmega 328 . Well I guess it was only going to be time until they started shipping the arduino boards with the chips already installed. New Arduino Duemilanove rolling out the door will have this upgrade. What does this mean? twice the RAM, twice the EEPROM ,faster uploading of sketches but still completely compatible with the previous chip. Arduino users around the world rejoice! Announcement on the arduino blog […]

  2. NKC Electronics Says:

    The new boards are already being shipped out from several distributors:

    NKC Electronics
    Adafruit

  3. follower Says:

    A slight typo: It should be “16 KB” not “8 KB” that is the previous flash memory size.

    –Phil.

  4. dcuartielles Says:

    @follower: thanks, I fixed the post!

  5. Mark Says:

    What about the Diecimila? Is it possible to upgrade the Diecimila with an Atmega328?

  6. dcuartielles Says:

    Yes,

    just change the processor and everything will work the same. When choosing the board on the IDE you will have to select the Duemilanove with 328 instead 🙂

  7. WalterM Says:

    Since the Arduino Duemilanove is equipped with a (FDN)340 instead of the original MOSFET NDT2955 the switching-off of the 5V isn’t still working. See my posts:
    http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1284034373
    I have noticed it at 5 boards, labeled: Made in Italy, designed by tinker.it

  8. dcuartielles Says:

    From Gianluca Martino (HW guru at Arduino):

    The power Switch is intended for switch the supply from one power source to another and not to remove the 5v from the USB port. This is necessary to keep the ftdi live for an insertion of the USB.

  9. WalterM Says:

    It would be very helpful if Signor Gianluca Martino would share our discussion on the Arduino forum:
    http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1284034373

    By the way: On this site is written that the email address will not be published. But it will for some days. Why?

  10. dcuartielles Says:

    Hej Walter,

    where do you say the email addresses are shown? In the blog I believe not, since I am in it right now and I cannot see them. Are you talking about the forum?

    Please notify it here so that I can follow the issue and fix it.

  11. WalterM Says:

    Sorry David,
    I think due to a cookie my email address returned each time again in the field „Mail“. And after the cookie’s lifetime it disappeared. I was worry a bit that it would be visible worldwide.
    So please delete what was written by me regarding this.

    Thanks,
    Walter

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