AVR-Chat

I have a question which has been bugging me for some time.  The data sheet for an AVR, under absolute maximum ratings, usually says something like “voltage on any pin…-0.5V to Vcc+0.5V”.   So what happens if there is no Vcc, i.e., there is no supply power applied to the AVR, but at the same time there happens to be Vcc on, say, a digital input pin or a UART RX line?  Does the chip handle it just fine w/o any supply voltage or does it smoke?

 

The same question can, of course, be asked of most any IC, and I’d be interested in the answer to this generalization as well.

 

Thanks, Steve



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