ASF4, supporting the SAM microcontroller product line (as well as a number of wireless example projects), is the fourth major generation of ASF. It represents a complete redesign and implementation of the framework to improve the memory footprint and code performance, as well as to better integrate with the Atmel START web user interface. ASF4 must be used in conjunction with Atmel START, which replaces the ASF Wizard of ASF3.
For a description of ASF4 system context, see: ASF4: Atmel START, Software Content and IDEs (from ASF4 API Reference Manual).
ASF3 is an MCU software library providing a large collection of embedded software for AVR® and SAM flash MCUs and Wireless: megaAVR®, AVR XMEGA®, AVR UC3, SAM devices, ATWINC, ATWILC and ATBTLC. ASF3 is configured by the ASF Wizard in Atmel Studio 7 (installed as an extension to Studio). ASF3 is also available as a standalone (*.zip) with the same content as Studio extension.