... I have observed that many people in your part of the world have gotten caught up in one problem. The various ATMEL 805x-versions have, in general, required different and often single-version programming circuits. Quite often, ATMEL has published schematic diagrams of the programming circuits for them. Beginners have often attempted to construct their own programming circiuts, only to find that, for one reason or another, they had to switch versions of the 805x, perhaps due to availability issues in India, only to find that their programming circuit didn't work with the version to which they wished to switch.

I'm not sure why they (ATMEL) have not done more to ensure that a single programming tool would support all or most of their products, but that's the way it is.

ATMEL programmers are apparently not widely capable. The change of one or another letter/number in the part number can mean a new programmer is requjired. You should read the fine print in the datasheet before buing into a specific model, and make certain that long-term support and supply is readily available where you want to obtain your parts.

Never having used ATMEL parts, I don't know how serious a problem this is in the U.S, but I've read many a post indicating that it is one in India.

RE