C51 Primer

by Mike Beach, Hitex (UK) Ltd.

HTML version by
Steffen Duffner, Irena & Olaf Pfeiffer
Hitex Development Tools

using HTML Author. Last modified on 03/03/96.

Click here for the Table of Contents

Two zip files are available, containing the complete document in HTML
or plain ASCII format: c51prhtm.zip, c51prtxt.zip.


About The C51 Primer

If you've flicked through this publication, you may be left thinking that it is necessary to be an expert to produce workable programs with C51. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is perfectly possible to write real commercial programs with nothing more than a reasonable knowledge of the ANSI C language.

However, to get the maximum performance from the 8051, knowing a few tricks is very useful. This is particularly true if you are working on a very cost-sensitive project where needing a bigger RAM or EPROM can result in an unacceptable on-cost. After all, if cost was not a consideration, we would all be using 80C166s and 68000s!

Whilst the C51 Primer is really aimed at users of the Keil C51 Compiler, it is applicable in part to compilers such as IAR and Tasking. However, as these compilers do not allow such low-level access and have fewer 8051-specific extensions, they are le ss likely to be used on projects where getting maximum performance is essential.

The C51 Primer Will Help You

The C51 Primer Will Not Help You

This guide should be read in association with a good C reference such as Kernighan and Ritchie and is not meant to be a definitive work on the C language. It covers all the 8051-specific language extensions and those areas where the CPU architecture h as an impact on coding approach.


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