26 Jan
2010
26 Jan
'10
7:19 p.m.
On 1/26/10, Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> wrote:
Then, engineers typically use what they know, and
it spreads like
crazy from there.
I've certainly seen a lot of that.
I've only been working with the 8051 recently (since 2001) and on a
small number of projects (Spare Time Gizmos "Life", among others).
Even though most of what I do these days is with AVR processors, I
happen to be about to send off an AT80S52 board design for fabrication
this week, my first 8051 design (selected because the prototype was an
everything-but-the-kitchen-sink 8051 board, picked by someone who has
a long history with the 8051).
I've done tons of work with 8051s over the
years, and I love them,
but I have to admit I've always felt hamstrung by the memory
addressing scheme. It's fine once you get used to it, but that's one
part of the architecture that I really dislike.
I've only done a little 8051 assembler and do recognize that the
memory model is a bit bizarre compared to most microprocessors, but
the vast majority of my microcontroller code is low-performance and in
C, which hides ugly details of the architecture. It does get fun,
though, when you do have a critical task or have to delve into
assembler for debugging.
-ethan