Its extensive peripheral set includes USB Full Speed Host and Device interfaces, an LCD Controller, Multimedia Card Interface (MCI), Synchronous Serial Controllers (SSC), USARTs, Master/Slave Serial Peripheral Interfaces (SPI), a three-channel 16-bit Timer Counter (TC) and a Two Wire Interface (TWI). Three 32-bit Parallel I/O Controllers multiplex the pins to/from these peripherals in order to reduce the device pin count, and peripheral DMA channels maximize the data throughput between these interfaces and the on- and off-chip memories.

The AT91SAM9261 has a fully featured system controller for efficient system management, including a reset controller, shutdown controller, clock management, advanced interrupt controller (AIC), debug unit (DBGU), periodic interval timer, watchdog timer and real-time timer.

The AT91SAM9261’s throughput and the DSP extensions to its instruction set allow complex DSP functions, such as biometrics, voice recognition, software modems, or encryption/decryption algorithms like RSA, to be executed very quickly in burst mode, so the system can be shut down much of the time. It consumes only 2.5 uA in standby mode, and 400 uA at 500 Hz. In industrial temperature range, its current consumption at 200 MIPS with all peripherals turned on is just 65 mA. It is supplied in a 217-ball LFBGA RoHS-compliant package.

The AT91SAM9261 is supported by the AT91SAM9261 Evaluation Board and extensive third-party application development tools. It supports both Linux and Windows CE. It is targeted at low power, high throughput wireless handheld applications, such as wireless PoS devices.