AVR-Chat

I'm looking at a project using the AT32 for the first time and trying  
to work through pin assignments.  The part I'm looking at is the 144  
pin AT32U3A0512.   I have a parallel interface serial display to talk  
to.  On an 8 bit processor, I'd just assign an entire port to it and  
write a byte to that port and life would be easy.

 From what I can see on this part, there are GPIO ports and, like on  
the 8 bit parts, the pins can have different functions.  Is there a  
way to group 8 pins into a group that behaves like an 8 bit port?  I  
was thinking I could use EBI data 0-7, but I don't know if that will  
wind up impacting the other EBI related pins.

Of course its a rush project and they're waiting for my response on  
pin assignment to do the layout.

Thanks.