ASF, the Atmel Software Framework, is a fundamental part of Studio 6. The Atmel® Software Framework is a MCU software library providing a large collection of embedded software for Microchip flash MCUs: megaAVR, AVR XMEGA, AVR UC3, and SAM devices. ASF is a rich software library, it simplifies the usage of microcontrollers, providing an abstraction to the hardware and high-value middleware's. ASF provides a consistent interface across Microchip MCUs. This allows the developer to focus on developing their differentiation and not spend valuable time on drivers and low level software stacks. A key benefit is that by using ASF, projects can easily move between MCU families. ASF is designed to be used for evaluation, prototyping, design, and production phases. It is integrated in the Atmel Studio IDE with a graphical user interface or for those who do not want to use Atmel Studio it is available as a standalone for GCC, IAR compilers. ASF can be downloaded for free.