Thanks to Prof. P.

Suresh, RCET
 Microprocessor Based System
CPU
External RAM, ROM, I/O
(No internal RAM, ROM, I/O ports in the CPU)

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 2

 Microcontroller
• A smaller computer on a CHIP
• On-chip RAM, ROM, I/O Ports, Timer, Serial Controller…
• Example: Motorola’s 6811, Intel’s 8051, Atmel 32

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 3

 Microprocessor vs. Microcontroller
Microprocessor Microcontroller
• CPU is stand-alone, RAM, • CPU, RAM, ROM, I/O and
ROM, I/O, timer are separate timer are all on a single chip

• Designer can decide on the • Fixed amount of on-chip ROM,

amount of ROM, RAM and I/O RAM, I/O ports df
ports. dfdfdfdfdfdfdf

• Expansive • Not Expansive

• Versatility • Single-purpose

• General-purpose • Special Purpose.

Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 4

 μC based Embedded Systems
• Special purpose computer system usually completely inside
the device it controls
• Has specific requirements and performs pre-defined tasks
• Cost reduction compared to general purpose processor
• Different design criteria
– Performance
– Reliability
– Availability
– Safety

8051 Microcontroller 5
 Embedded Systems Examples

8051 Microcontroller 6
 Examples

8051 Microcontroller 7
8051 Microcontroller 8
8051 Microcontroller 9
8051 Microcontroller 10
8051 Microcontroller 11
 Harvard Architecture

In Harvard Architecture the data and instructions are

stored in separate memory units each with their own
bus.
Advantages:
▪ Speeding up the data transfer rate,
▪ Permits the designer to implement different bus widths
and word sizes for program and data memory space.

8051 Microcontroller 12
 8051 CPU Operation
1. Features
2. Pin Diagram
3. Block Diagram

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 13

 8051 Microcontroller
• Intel introduced 8051, referred as MCS- 51, in
1981.

• The 8051 is an 8-bit processor

– The CPU can work on only 8 bits of data at a time

• The 8051 became widely popular after allowing

other manufactures to make and market any flavor
of the 8051.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 14

 Features of 8051
8 bit Processor
4KB Internal ROM
128 Bytes Internal RAM
Four 8 BIT I/O PORTS (32 I/O LINES)
Two 16 Bit Timers/Counters
On Chip Full Duplex UART for Serial Communication
5 Vector Interrupts ( 2 External, 3 Internal - Timer0,Timer1,Serial)
On Chip Clock Oscillator
16 bit Address bus
64k External Code Memory
64k External Data Memory
16-bit program counter to access external Code Memory and
16 bit Data Pointer to access external Data Memory
128 user defined flags
32 General Purpose Registers each of 8 bits

8051 Microcontroller 15
 8051 Family
• The 8051 is a subset of the 8052
• The 8031 is a ROM-less 8051
– Add external ROM to it
– You lose two ports, and leave only 2 ports for I/O operations

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 16

 Pin Diagram

8051 Microcontroller 17
 Block Diagram of 8051

8051 Microcontroller 18
Separate read instructions for external data and code memory.
 Pin Description of the 8051
• 8051 family members (e.g., 8751, 89C51, 89C52,
DS89C4x0)
– Have 40 pins dedicated for various functions such as I/O, RD,
WR, address, data, and interrupts.
– Come in different packages, such as
• DIP(dual in-line package),
• QFP(quad flat package), and
• LLC(leadless chip carrier)

• Some companies provide a 20-pin version of the 8051

with a reduced number of I/O ports for less demanding
applications
8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 20
 XTAL1 and XTAL2
• The 8051 has an on-chip oscillator but requires an
external crystal to run it
– A quartz crystal oscillator is connected to inputs XTAL1 (pin19)
and XTAL2 (pin18)
– The quartz crystal oscillator also needs two capacitors of 30 pF
value
– The original 8051 operates at 12 MHZ

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 21

 XTAL1 and XTAL2 …..
• If you use a frequency source other than a crystal
oscillator, such as a TTL oscillator:
– It will be connected to XTAL1
– XTAL2 is left unconnected

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 22

 RST
• RESET pin is an input and is active high (normally low)
• Upon applying a high pulse to this pin, the microcontroller will
reset and terminate all activities
• This is often referred to as a power-on reset
• Activating a power-on reset will cause all values in the registers to
be lost

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 23

 EA’
• EA’, “external access’’, is an input pin and must be
connected to Vcc or GND

• The 8051 family members all come with on-chip ROM

to store programs and also have an external code and
data memory.

• Normally EA pin is connected to Vcc (Internal Access)

• EA pin must be connected to GND to indicate that the

code or data is stored externally.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 24

 PSEN’ and ALE
• PSEN, “program store enable’’, is an output pin

• This pin is connected to the OE pin of the external

memory.

• For External Code Memory, PSEN’ = 0

• For External Data Memory, PSEN’ = 1

• ALE pin is used for demultiplexing the address and data.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 25

 I/O Port Pins
• The four 8-bit I/O ports P0, P1, P2
and P3 each uses 8 pins.

• All the ports upon RESET are

configured as output, ready to be
used as input ports by the external
device.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 26

 Port 0
• Port 0 is also designated as AD0-AD7.

• When connecting an 8051 to an external

memory, port 0 provides both address and
data.

• The 8051 multiplexes address and data

through port 0 to save pins.

• ALE indicates if P0 has address or data.

– When ALE=0, it provides data D0-D7
– When ALE=1, it has address A0-A7

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 27

 Port 1 and Port 2
• In 8051-based systems with no external
memory connection:
– Both P1 and P2 are used as simple I/O.
• In 8051-based systems with external
memory connections:
– Port 2 must be used along with P0 to provide
the 16-bit address for the external memory.
– P0 provides the lower 8 bits via A0 – A7.
– P2 is used for the upper 8 bits of the 16-bit
address, designated as A8 – A15, and it cannot
be used for I/O.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 28

 Port 3
• Port 3 can be used as input or output.

• Port 3 has the additional function of

providing some extremely important
signals

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 29

 Pin Description Summary
PIN TYPE NAME AND FUNCTION
Vss I Ground: 0 V reference.
Vcc I Power Supply: This is the power supply voltage for normal,
idle, and power-down operation.
P0.0 - P0.7 I/O Port 0: Port 0 is an open-drain, bi-directional I/O port. Port
0 is also the multiplexed low-order address and data bus
during accesses to external program and data memory.
P1.0 - P1.7 I/O Port 1: Port I is an 8-bit bi-directional I/O port.

P2.0 - P2.7 I/O Port 2: Port 2 is an 8-bit bidirectional I/O. Port 2 emits the
high order address byte during fetches from external
program memory and during accesses to external data
memory that use 16 bit addresses.
P3.0 - P3.7 I/O Port 3: Port 3 is an 8 bit bidirectional I/O port. Port 3 also
serves special features as explained.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 30

 Pin Description Summary
PIN TYPE NAME AND FUNCTION
RST I Reset: A high on this pin for two machine cycles while the
oscillator is running, resets the device.
ALE O Address Latch Enable: Output pulse for latching the low byte
of the address during an access to external memory.
PSEN* O Program Store Enable: The read strobe to external program
memory. When executing code from the external program
memory, PSEN* is activated twice each machine cycle,
except that two PSEN* activations are skipped during
each access to external data memory.
EA*/VPP I External Access Enable/Programming Supply Voltage: EA*
must be externally held low to enable the device to fetch
code from external program memory locations. If EA* Is
held high, the device executes from internal program
memory. This pin also receives the programming supply
voltage Vpp during Flash programming. (applies for 89c5x
MCU's)
8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 31
General Block Diagram of 8051

Interrupt 4K 128 Timer 0

Control ROM B
Timer 1
RAM

CPU

Bus Serial
OSC Contro 4 I/O Ports
l Port

TXD RXD
P0 P1 P2 P3
 Detailed Block Diagram

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 33

 8051
Memory
Space
8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 34
 8051 Memory Structure

External

External
60K

64K 64K

SFR
EXT INT 4K
128
EA = 0 EA = 1 Internal
Program Memory Data Memory
8051 Microcontroller 35
 Internal RAM Structure

Direct
Addressin
g
Only
SFR [ Special Function
Direct &
Indirect
Registers]
Addressin
g
128 Byte Internal RAM

8051 Microcontroller 36
 Special Function Registers [SFR]

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 37

 Program Status Word [PSW]

C AC F0 RS1 RS0 OV F1 P
Carry Parity
Auxiliary Carry User Flag 1
User Flag 0 Register Bank Select Overflow

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 38

 8051 instructions that affects flag

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 39

 128 Byte RAM
• There are 128 bytes of RAM in the 8051.
– Assigned addresses 00 to 7FH General Purpose
• The 128 bytes are divided into 3 different Area

groups as follows:
BIT Addressable
1. A total of 32 bytes from locations 00 to 1F
hex are set aside for register banks and the 128Area
BYTE
INTERNAL
stack. RAM
Reg Bank 3
2. A total of 16 bytes from locations 20H to 2FH
are set aside for bit-addressable read/write Reg Bank 2
Register
memory. Banks
Reg Bank 1
3. A total of 80 bytes from locations 30H to 7FH
Reg Bank 0
are used for read and write storage, called
scratch pad.
8051 Microcontroller 40
 8051 RAM with addresses

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 41

 8051 Register Bank Structure

Bank 3 R0 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7
Bank 2 R0 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7
Bank 1 R0 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7
Bank 0 R0 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7

8051 Microcontroller 42
 8051 Register Banks with address

8051 Microcontroller 43
 8051 Programming Model

8051 Microcontroller 44
 8051 Stack
• The stack is a section of RAM used by the CPU to store
information temporarily.
– This information could be data or an address

• The register used to access the stack is called the SP

(stack pointer) register
– The stack pointer in the 8051 is only 8 bit wide, which means
that it can take value of 00 to FFH
– When the 8051 is powered up, the SP register contains value
07
– RAM location 08 is the first location begin used for the stack by
the 8051
8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 45
 8051 Stack
• The storing of a CPU register in the stack is called a PUSH
– SP is pointing to the last used location of the stack
– As we push data onto the stack, the SP is incremented by one
– This is different from many microprocessors

• Loading the contents of the stack back into a CPU

register is called a POP
– With every pop, the top byte of the stack is copied to the
register specified by the instruction and the stack pointer is
decremented once

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 46

 Bit Addressable & Byte Addressable

8051 Microcontroller 47
 Single bit Instructions

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 48

 Bit Addressable Programming
• Example: Find out to which by each of the following bits
belongs. Give the address of the RAM byte in hex
(a) SETB 42H, (b) CLR 67H, (c) CLR 0FH (d) SETB 28H, (e) CLR 12, (f) SETB 05

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 49

 8051 Software Overview
1. Addressing Modes
2. Instruction Set
3. Programming

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 50

 8051 Addressing Modes
• The CPU can access data in various ways, which are
called addressing modes

1. Immediate
2. Register
3. Direct
4. Register indirect
5. External Direct

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 51

 Immediate Addressing Mode
• The source operand is a constant.
• The immediate data must be preceded by the pound sign, “#”
• Can load information into any registers, including 16-bit DPTR
register
– DPTR can also be accessed as two 8-bit registers, the high byte DPH and
low byte DPL

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 52

 Register Addressing Mode
• Use registers to hold the data to be manipulated.

• The source and destination registers must match in size.

MOV DPTR,A will give an error

• The movement of data between Rn registers is not allowed

MOV R4,R7 is invalid
8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 53
 Direct Addressing Mode
• It is most often used the direct addressing mode to
access RAM locations 30 – 7FH.

• The entire 128 bytes of RAM can be accessed.

• Contrast this with immediate addressing mode, there is

no “#” sign in the operand.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 54

 SFR Registers & their Addresses
MOV 0E0H,#55H ;is the same as
MOV A,#55H ;which means load 55H into A (A=55H)

MOV 0F0H,#25H ;is the same as

MOV B,#25H ;which means load 25H into B (B=25H)

MOV 0E0H,R2 ;is the same as

MOV A,R2 ;which means copy R2 into A

MOV 0F0H,R0 ;is the same as

MOV B,R0 ;which means copy R0 into B

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 55

 SFR Addresses ( 1 of 2 )

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 56

 SFR Addresses ( 2 of 2 )

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 57

 Example

Intel 8051 Programming 58

 Stack and Direct Addressing Mode
• Only direct addressing mode is allowed for pushing or
popping the stack.

• PUSH A is invalid.

• Pushing the accumulator onto the stack must be coded

as PUSH 0E0H.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 59

 Register Indirect Addressing Mode
• A register is used as a pointer to the data.
• Only register R0 and R1 are used for this purpose.
• R2 – R7 cannot be used to hold the address of an
operand located in RAM.
• When R0 and R1 hold the addresses of RAM locations,
they must be preceded by the “@” sign.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 60

 Register Indirect Addressing Mode
• Write a program to copy the value 55H into RAM memory locations 40H
to 41H using (a) direct addressing mode, (b) register indirect addressing
mode without a loop, and (c) with a loop.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 61

 Register Indirect Addressing Mode
• The advantage is that it makes accessing data dynamic
rather than static as in direct addressing mode.

• Looping is not possible in direct addressing mode.

• Write a program to clear 16 RAM locations starting at

RAM address 60H.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 62

 External Direct
• External Memory is accessed.

• There are only two commands that use External Direct

addressing mode:
– MOVX A, @DPTR
MOVX @DPTR, A

• DPTR must first be loaded with the address of external

memory.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 63

 8051 Instruction Set
• 8051 instructions have 8-bit opcode
• There are 256 possible instructions of which 255 are
• implemented

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 64

 MOV Instruction
• MOV destination, source ; copy source to destination.
• MOV A,#55H ;load value 55H into reg. A
MOV R0,A ;copy contents of A into R0
;(now A=R0=55H)
MOV R1,A ;copy contents of A into R1
;(now A=R0=R1=55H)
MOV R2,A ;copy contents of A into R2
;(now A=R0=R1=R2=55H)
MOV R3,#95H ;load value 95H into R3
;(now R3=95H)
MOV A,R3 ;copy contents of R3 into A
;now A=R3=95H

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 65

 ADD Instruction
• ADD A, source ;ADD the source operand to the
accumulator

• MOV A, #25H ;load 25H into A

MOV R2,#34H ;load 34H into R2
ADD A,R2 ;add R2 to accumulator
;(A = A + R2)

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 66

 Structure of Assembly Language
ORG 0H ;start (origin) at location 0
MOV R5,#25H ;load 25H into R5
MOV R7,#34H ;load 34H into R7
MOV A,#0 ;load 0 into A
ADD A,R5 ;add contents of R5 to A
;now A = A + R5
ADD A,R7 ;add contents of R7 to A
;now A = A + R7
ADD A,#12H ;add to A value 12H
;now A = A + 12H
HERE: SJMP HERE ;stay in this loop
END ;end of asm source file

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 67

 Data Types & Directives

ORG 500H
DATA1: DB 28 ;DECIMAL (1C in Hex)
DATA2: DB 00110101B ;BINARY (35 in Hex)
DATA3: DB 39H ;HEX
ORG 510H
DATA4: DB “2591” ; ASCII NUMBERS
ORG 518H
DATA6: DB “My name is Joe” ;ASCII CHARACTERS

Intel 8051 Programming 68

ADD Instruction and PSW

Intel 8051 Programming 69

ADD Instruction and PSW

Intel 8051 Programming 70

 Multiplication of Unsigned Numbers
MUL AB ; A × B, place 16-bit result in B and A

MOV A,#25H ;load 25H to reg. A

MOV B,#65H ;load 65H in reg. B
MUL AB ;25H * 65H = E99 where B = 0EH and A = 99H

Table 6-1:Unsigned Multiplication Summary (MUL AB)

Multiplication Operand 1 Operand 2 Result

byte × byte A B A=low byte,

B=high byte

Intel 8051 Programming 71

 Division of Unsigned Numbers
DIV AB ; divide A by B

• MOV A,#95H ;load 95 into A

• MOV B,#10H ;load 10 into B
• DIV AB ;now A = 09 (quotient) and B = 05 (remainder)

Table 6-2:Unsigned Division Summary (DIV AB)

Division Numerator Denominator Quotient Remainder
byte / byte A B A B

Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 72

 Checking an input bit
JNB (jump if no bit) ; JB (jump if bit = 1)

8051 Microcontroller 73
 Switch Register Banks

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 74

 Pushing onto Stack

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 75

 Popping from Stack

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 76

 Looping

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 77

 Loop inside a Loop (Nested Loop)

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 78

 8051 Conditional Jump Instructions

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 79

8051 Microcontroller 80
 Conditional Jump Example

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 81

 Conditional Jump Example

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 82

 Unconditional Jump Instructions
• All conditional jumps are short jumps
– Target address within -128 to +127 of PC

• LJMP (long jump): 3-byte instruction

– 2-byte target address: 0000 to FFFFH
– Original 8051 has only 4KB on-chip ROM

• SJMP (short jump): 2-byte instruction

– 1-byte relative address: -128 to +127

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 83

 Call Instructions

• LCALL (long call): 3-byte instruction

– 2-byte address
– Target address within 64K-byte range

• ACALL (absolute call): 2-byte instruction

– 11-bit address
– Target address within 2K-byte range

Mr. P. Suresh Venugopal Intel 8051 Programming 84

Separate read instructions for external data and code memory.
Return
 8051 Peripheral Overview
1. Timers
2. Serial Port
3. Interrupts

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 87

 8051
TIMERS
8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 88
 8051 Timer/Counter
OS
÷12
C
TLx THx TFx
(8 (8 (1 Bit)
Bit) Bit)

INTERRUPT

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 89

 TMOD Register

GATE:
When set, timer/counter x is enabled, if INTx pin is high
and TRx is set.
When cleared, timer/counter x is enabled, if TRx bit set.

C/T*:
When set, counter operation (input from Tx input pin).
When cleared, timer operation (input from internal clock).

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 90

 TMOD Register

The TMOD byte is not bit addressable.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 91

 TCON Register

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 92

 8051 Timer Modes
8051 TIMERS

Timer 0 Timer 1

Mode 0 Mode 0

Mode 1 Mode 1

Mode 2 Mode 2

Mode 3

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 93

 TIMER 0
OSC ÷12

TL0 TH0 TF0

INTERRUPT
 TIMER 0 – Mode 0
13 Bit Timer / Counter
OS ÷1
C 2
TL0 TH0 INTERRUPT
TF0
(5 Bit) (8 Bit)

Maximum Count = 1FFFh (0001111111111111)

 TIMER 0 – Mode 1
16 Bit Timer / Counter
OS ÷1
C 2
TL0 TH0 INTERRUPT
TF0
(8 Bit) (8 Bit)

Maximum Count = FFFFh (1111111111111111)

 TIMER 0 – Mode 2
8 Bit Timer / Counter with AUTORELOAD

OS ÷1
C 2
TL0 TH0 INTERRUPT
TF0
(8 Bit) (8 Bit)

Reload

TH0
(8 Bit)

Maximum Count = FFh (11111111)

 TIMER 0 – Mode 3
Two - 8 Bit Timer / Counter
OS ÷1
C 2
TL0 INTERRUPT
TF0
(8 Bit)

OSC ÷12 TH0 INTERRUPT

TF1
(8 Bit)
 TIMER 1
OSC ÷12

TL1 TH1 TF1

INTERRUPT
 TIMER 1 – Mode 0
13 Bit Timer / Counter
OS ÷1
C 2
TL1 TH1 INTERRUPT
TF1
(5 Bit) (8 Bit)

Maximum Count = 1FFFh (0001111111111111)

 TIMER 1 – Mode 1
16 Bit Timer / Counter
OS ÷1
C 2
TL1 TH1 INTERRUPT
TF1
(8 Bit) (8 Bit)

Maximum Count = FFFFh (1111111111111111)

 TIMER 1 – Mode 2
8 Bit Timer / Counter with AUTORELOAD

OS ÷1
C 2
TL1 TH1 INTERRUPT
TF1
(8 Bit) (8 Bit)

Reload

TH1
(8 Bit)

Maximum Count = FFh (11111111)

 Programming Timers
• Example: Indicate which mode and which timer are
selected for each of the following.
(a) MOV TMOD, #01H (b) MOV TMOD, #20H (c) MOV
TMOD, #12H

• Solution: We convert the value from hex to binary.

(a) TMOD = 00000001, mode 1 of timer 0 is selected.
(b) TMOD = 00100000, mode 2 of timer 1 is selected.
(c) TMOD = 00010010, mode 2 of timer 0, and mode 1 of timer 1
are selected.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 103

 Programming Timers
• Find the timer’s clock frequency and its period for
various 8051-based system, with the crystal frequency
11.0592 MHz when C/T bit of TMOD is 0.

• Solution:

1/12 × 11.0529 MHz = 921.6 MHz;

T = 1/921.6 kHz = 1.085 us

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 104

 8051
Serial
8051 Microcontroller
Port 105
Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE ,
 Basics of Serial Communication
• Computers transfer data in two ways:
– Parallel: Often 8 or more lines (wire conductors) are used to
transfer data to a device that is only a few feet away.

– Serial: To transfer to a device located many meters away, the

serial method is used. The data is sent one bit at a time.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 106

 Basics of Serial Communication
• Serial data communication uses two methods
– Synchronous method transfers a block of data at a time

– Asynchronous method transfers a single byte at a time

• There are special IC’s made by many manufacturers for

serial communications.
– UART (universal asynchronous Receiver transmitter)

– USART (universal synchronous-asynchronous

Receiver-transmitter)

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 107

 Asynchronous – Start & Stop Bit
• Asynchronous serial data communication is widely used
for character-oriented transmissions
– Each character is placed in between start and stop bits, this is
called framing.
– Block-oriented data transfers use the synchronous method.

• The start bit is always one bit, but the stop bit can be
one or two bits

• The start bit is always a 0 (low) and the stop bit(s) is 1

(high)

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 108

 Asynchronous – Start & Stop Bit

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 109

 Data Transfer Rate
• The rate of data transfer in serial data communication is
stated in bps (bits per second).

• Another widely used terminology for bps is baud rate.

– It is modem terminology and is defined as the number of
signal changes per second
– In modems, there are occasions when a single change of signal
transfers several bits of data

• As far as the conductor wire is concerned, the baud rate

and bps are the same.

8051 Microcontroller Suresh.P.Nair , HOD - ECE , 110

 8051 Serial Port
• Synchronous and Asynchronous
• SCON Register is used to Control
• Data Transfer through TXd & RXd pins
• Some time - Clock through TXd Pin
• Four Modes of Operation:

Mode 0 :Synchronous Serial Communication

Mode 1 :8-Bit UART with Timer Data Rate
Mode 2 :9-Bit UART with Set Data Rate
Mode 3 :9-Bit UART with Timer Data Rate

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 Registers related to Serial
Communication

1. SBUF Register

2. SCON Register

3. PCON Register

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 SBUF Register
• SBUF is an 8-bit register used solely for serial communication.
• For a byte data to be transferred via the TxD line, it must be
placed in the SBUF register.
• The moment a byte is written into SBUF, it is framed with the
start and stop bits and transferred serially via the TxD line.
• SBUF holds the byte of data when it is received by 8051 RxD
line.
• When the bits are received serially via RxD, the 8051 deframes
it by eliminating the stop and start bits, making a byte out of
the data received, and then placing it in SBUF.

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 SBUF Register
• Sample Program:

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 SCON Register

SM0 SM1 SM2 REN TB8 RB8 TI RI

Set when a Cha-

Set to Enable ractor received
Serial Data
reception Set when Stop bit
Txed

Enable Multiprocessor 9th Data Bit 9th Data Bit

Communication Mode Sent in Mode 2,3 Received in Mode 2,3

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 8051 Serial Port – Mode 0
The Serial Port in Mode-0 has the following features:

1. Serial data enters and exits through RXD

2. TXD outputs the clock

3. 8 bits are transmitted / received

4. The baud rate is fixed at (1/12) of the oscillator frequency

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 8051 Serial Port – Mode 1
The Serial Port in Mode-1 has the following features:

1. Serial data enters through RXD

2. Serial data exits through TXD
3. On receive, the stop bit goes into RB8 in SCON
4. 10 bits are transmitted / received
1. Start bit (0)
2. Data bits (8)
3. Stop Bit (1)
5. Baud rate is determined by the Timer 1 over flow rate.

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 8051 Serial Port – Mode 2
The Serial Port in Mode-2 has the following features:

1. Serial data enters through RXD

2. Serial data exits through TXD
3. 9th data bit (TB8) can be assign value 0 or 1
4. On receive, the 9th data bit goes into RB8 in SCON
5. 11 bits are transmitted / received
1.Start bit (0)
2.Data bits (9)
3.Stop Bit (1)
6. Baud rate is programmable

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 8051 Serial Port – Mode 3
The Serial Port in Mode-3 has the following features:

1. Serial data enters through RXD

2. Serial data exits through TXD
3. 9th data bit (TB8) can be assign value 0 or 1
4. On receive, the 9th data bit goes into RB8 in SCON
5. 11 bits are transmitted / received
1.Start bit (0)
2.Data bits (9)
3.Stop Bit (1)
6. Baud rate is determined by Timer 1 overflow rate.

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 Programming Serial Data Transmission
1. TMOD register is loaded with the value 20H, indicating the use of timer
1 in mode 2 (8-bit auto-reload) to set baud rate.
2. The TH1 is loaded with one of the values to set baud rate for serial data
transfer.
3. The SCON register is loaded with the value 50H, indicating serial mode
1, where an 8- bit data is framed with start and stop bits.
4. TR1 is set to 1 to start timer 1
5. TI is cleared by CLR TI instruction
6. The character byte to be transferred serially is written into SBUF
register.
7. The TI flag bit is monitored with the use of instruction JNB TI, xx to see
if the character has been transferred completely.
8. To transfer the next byte, go to step 5
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 Programming Serial Data Reception
1. TMOD register is loaded with the value 20H, indicating the use of timer 1
in mode 2 (8-bit auto-reload) to set baud rate.
2. TH1 is loaded to set baud rate
3. The SCON register is loaded with the value 50H, indicating serial mode 1,
where an 8- bit data is framed with start and stop bits.
4. TR1 is set to 1 to start timer 1
5. RI is cleared by CLR RI instruction
6. The RI flag bit is monitored with the use of instruction JNB RI, xx to see if
an entire character has been received yet
7. When RI is raised, SBUF has the byte, its contents are moved into a safe
place.
8. To receive the next character, go to step 5.

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 Doubling Baud Rate
• There are two ways to increase the baud rate of data
transfer
1. By using a higher frequency crystal
2. By changing a bit in the PCON register

• PCON register is an 8-bit register.

•When 8051 is powered up, SMOD is zero

•We can set it to high by software and thereby double the baud rate.

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 Doubling Baud Rate (cont…)

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 8051
Interrupts
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 INTERRUPTS
• An interrupt is an external or internal event that
interrupts the microcontroller to inform it that a device
needs its service

• A single microcontroller can serve several devices by two

ways:
1. Interrupt
2. Polling

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 Interrupt Vs Polling
1. Interrupts
– Whenever any device needs its service, the device notifies the
microcontroller by sending it an interrupt signal.
– Upon receiving an interrupt signal, the microcontroller
interrupts whatever it is doing and serves the device.
– The program which is associated with the interrupt is called the
interrupt service routine (ISR) or interrupt handler.
2. Polling
– The microcontroller continuously monitors the status of a
given device.
– When the conditions met, it performs the service.
– After that, it moves on to monitor the next device until every
one is serviced.
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 Interrupt Vs Polling
• The polling method is not efficient, since it wastes much of
the microcontroller’s time by polling devices that do not
need service.
• The advantage of interrupts is that the microcontroller can
serve many devices (not all at the same time).
• Each devices can get the attention of the microcontroller
based on the assigned priority.
• For the polling method, it is not possible to assign priority
since it checks all devices in a round-robin fashion.

• The microcontroller can also ignore (mask) a device request

for service in Interrupt.
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 Steps in Executing an Interrupt
1. It finishes the instruction it is executing and saves the address of
the next instruction (PC) on the stack.
2. It also saves the current status of all the interrupts internally (i.e:
not on the stack).
3. It jumps to a fixed location in memory, called the interrupt
vector table, that holds the address of the ISR.
4. The microcontroller gets the address of the ISR from the
interrupt vector table and jumps to it.
5. It starts to execute the interrupt service subroutine until it
reaches the last instruction of the subroutine which is RETI
(return from interrupt).
6. Upon executing the RETI instruction, the microcontroller returns
to the place where it was interrupted.
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 Six Interrupts in 8051
Six interrupts are allocated as follows:
1. Reset – power-up reset.

2. Two interrupts are set aside for the timers.

– one for timer 0 and one for timer 1

3. Two interrupts are set aside for hardware external

interrupts.
– P3.2 and P3.3 are for the external hardware interrupts INT0
(or EX1), and INT1 (or EX2)

4. Serial communication has a single interrupt that

belongs to both receive and transfer.
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 What events can trigger Interrupts?
• We can configure the 8051 so that any of the following
events will cause an interrupt:

– Timer 0 Overflow.
– Timer 1 Overflow.
– Reception/Transmission of Serial Character.
– External Event 0.
– External Event 1.

• We can configure the 8051 so that when Timer 0

Overflows or when a character is sent/received, the
appropriate interrupt handler routines are called.
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 8051 Interrupt Vectors

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 8051 Interrupt related Registers
• The various registers associated with the use of
interrupts are:

– TCON - Edge and Type bits for External Interrupts 0/1

– SCON - RI and TI interrupt flags for RS232

– IE - Enable interrupt sources

– IP - Specify priority of interrupts

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 Enabling and Disabling an Interrupt
• Upon reset, all interrupts are disabled (masked),
meaning that none will be responded to by the
microcontroller if they are activated.

• The interrupts must be enabled by software in order for

the microcontroller to respond to them.

• There is a register called IE (interrupt enable) that is

responsible for enabling (unmasking) and disabling
(masking) the interrupts.

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 Interrupt Enable (IE) Register

--

• EA : Global enable/disable.
• --- : Reserved for additional interrupt hardware.
MOV IE,#08h • ES : Enable Serial port interrupt.
or
SETB ET1 • ET1 : Enable Timer 1 control bit.
• EX1 : Enable External 1 interrupt.
• ET0 : Enable Timer 0 control bit.
• EX0 : Enable External 0 interrupt.
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 Enabling and Disabling an Interrupt
• Example: Show the instructions to (a) enable the serial interrupt,
timer 0 interrupt, and external hardware interrupt 1 and (b)
disable (mask) the timer 0 interrupt, then (c) show how to disable
all the interrupts with a single instruction.
• Solution:
– (a) MOV IE,#10010110B ;enable serial, timer 0, EX1
• Another way to perform the same manipulation is:
– SETB IE.7 ;EA=1, global enable
– SETB IE.4 ;enable serial interrupt
– SETB IE.1 ;enable Timer 0 interrupt
– SETB IE.2 ;enable EX1
– (b) CLR IE.1 ;mask (disable) timer 0 interrupt only
– (c) CLR IE.7 ;disable all interrupts
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 Interrupt Priority
• When the 8051 is powered up, the priorities are assigned according
to the following.

• In reality, the priority scheme is nothing but an internal polling

sequence in which the 8051 polls the interrupts in the sequence
listed and responds accordingly.

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 Interrupt Priority
• We can alter the sequence of interrupt priority by assigning a
higher priority to any one of the interrupts by programming a
register called IP (interrupt priority).
• To give a higher priority to any of the interrupts, we make the
corresponding bit in the IP register high.

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 Interrupt Priority (IP) Register

Reserved PS PT1 PX1 PT0 PX0

Serial Port
INT 0 Pin
Timer 1 Pin

INT 1 Pin Timer 0 Pin

Priority bit=1 assigns high priority

Priority bit=0 assigns low priority
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