I have been using ATTiny13 DIP AVR's for a few years, for very simple projects. I'm now expanding and switching to surface mount devices.
I'm a little confused about some of Atmel's offerings; let's take one example, the ATTINY26.
Specifically there are so many variants of this that I have no idea what to select. If I select non-reel SOIC, I'm left with three choices:
- ATTINY261-20SU: 20MHz, 2.7-5.5V
- ATTINY261V-10SU: 10MHz, 1.8-5.5V
- ATTINY261A-SU: 20MHz, 1.8-5.5V (PicoPower)
Based on these, is there any reason I would not want to select the newer "PicoPower" (1.8V) capable AVR? I realize that the clock speed decreases with less power. In my application, I do not need to take advantage of the lower power operation. Since the cost for small quantities is similar, there's no real advantage that I can see to selecting the slower 10MHz version.
Bottom line, is there any reason to opt for the older and/or slower (first two listed) rather than the newer low-power version?
Edit:
PicoPower on this device is 1.8V, not 0.7V. (I must have misread part of the datasheet.)