Atmel has introduced a digital audio gateway reference design for its 32-bit AVR32 flash microcontroller. The AVR32 ATEVK1105 Digital Audio Gateway kit board comes with software that will scan any USB mass storage device for MP3 or other audio files and play them back. The software will also scan ID3 tags and present album artist and song information on the 2-inch QVGA onboard display. Atmel said MP3 decoding from a USB mass storage device requires approximately one-third of the AVR32's processing capacity.

The ATEVK1105 also features connectors for future wireless expansion modules supporting IEE802.15.4/ZigBe, and Bluetooth. The ATEVK1105 Digital Audio Gateway kit is priced at $179.