controller should not influence the external circuit just by reading it. With the pull-up enabled, however, the controller takes an active role in determining the state of the line and hence current will flow between the input pin and the external circuitry.

If current4 flows from the controller to the external circuit, the input is called a source input because it provides current. If current flows from the hardware into the controller, this is called a sink input. Controllers are very particular about the amount of current they can source and sink, and exceeding the bounds stated in the datasheet may destroy the pin and even the controller itself. Controllers can generally handle about 4-20 mA, and if they make a difference between sourcing and sinking at all, they can generally sink more current than they can source.

2.3.2Digital Output

The digital output functionality is used to set output pins to given voltage levels. The levels corresponding to high and low are again specified by the controller and depend on the controller’s operating voltage. For the ATmega16 at VCC = 5V, the maximum output low voltage is 0.7 V, and the minimum output high voltage is 4.2 V.

Whenever the DDR of a pin is set to output, the controller drives the pin according to the value given in the PORT register. An output pin generally has to sink or source current, so we can again distinguish between a sink output and a source output. The maximum current ratings discussed in the previous section apply, so we are talking about 4-20 mA maximum current5.

Output pins are more critical than input pins in the sense that they heavily depend on external current protection. After all, you could connect an output pin directly to GND and then set it to 1, thus creating a short-circuit. Although controllers tend to tolerate such short-circuits for a brief amount of time (generally less than a second), a short will eventually destroy the controller. So the hardware designer must ensure that the external hardware cannot produce a short-circuit. If it can, or if the application programmer prefers to be on the safe side, the controller at least offers the possibility to read back the current state of the pin via the PIN register. Of course, the PIN register suffers from the input delay, so a short-circuit will only become visible in the PIN register ddine clock cycles after the output pin has been set. Hence, the application must wait for this amount of time before it can check the PIN. If a mismatch is detected, the application program should set the pin to input immediately and notify the user.

Note that some microcontrollers only drive the 0, but using an open-drain input for generating the 1.

Finally, we want to draw your attention to the question of which register to set first for output pins, PORT or DDR. After a reset, the pin is generally set to input. If your controller does not use the PORT bits of input pins for other purposes (like the ATmega16, who uses them to control the pull-ups), and if the controller allows write access to the PORT bits of input pins, then the answer is obvious: you first set the PORT and then the DDR, thus ensuring that the correct value is put on the line from the beginning.

For Atmel’s AVR controllers like the ATmega16, however, the matter is more complex. Here, the PORT controls the pull-ups, so if you want to output 1 and first set PORT and then DDR, you will briefly enable the pull-up resistors before setting the port to output. Most of the time, this will

4We refer to the technical direction of the current here, from the positive pole to the negative pole.

5The 20 mA is a magic number, by the way, because this is the amount of current required to directly drive a normal LED. Being able to drive a LED directly is often a useful feature.