0) Rantings and ravings
Disclaimer: Just so it is understood, the "rantings and ravings" are
my rantings and raving. My readers are refined and sophisticated and
would never rant or rave. I, on the other hand, sit in front of the
TV in torn underwear and drink beer out of the bottle.
Well first off, I would like to apologize if I inadvertantly left out
anything in this month's FAQ. I'm starting 24 days of army reserve
on Sunday (Feb 25), and I'm rushing to finish this edition to get it
posted. If you wrote to me with information for the FAQ, and you
don't see it in this edition, please send me a gentle reminder. I'll
get back to you as soon as I can. I won't necessarily be able to
correspond so readily during my hitch so please have patience.
My apologies to Franklin Software. Last month I had intended to
include an explanation about Franklin and Keil being SEPARATE
companies - but somehow the section disappeared from the FAQ.
Anyhow, Franklin WAS the exclusive distributor for Keil in the US,
but they are now marketing their own software under the Franklin
label. I hope to have more information on Franklin in an upcoming
edition of the FAQ.
Ruth Ann Howden, owner of Techneering Inc, wrote to inform me that
one of their products is the PseudoCorp suite of cross assemblers,
simulators and disassemblers. The address and phone for Pseudocorp
has changed and in addition they now have email and a web page.
Pseudocorp's new address is:
PseudoCorp
2597 Potter St., Eugene, OR 97405
(541)683-9173 Fax: (541)683-9186
Email: rhowden@teleport.com
Web: http://www.teleport.com/~rhowden
The PseudoCorp BBS is no longer active. The new web site, which is
very new, will include links to other microcontroller sites as well
as their own offerings.
Ruth Ann's company, Techneering is actively looking for additional
products for their microcontroller line and would appreciate hearing
from developers who are looking for a distributor.
If you are interested in getting started with the 8051, a number of
excellent books are available. Two really great books for beginners
are "The Microcontroller Idea Book" by Jan Axelson (Lakeview
Research) and "Programming and Interfacing the 8051 Microcontroller"
by Sencer Yeralan and Ashutosh Ahluwalia (Addison Wesley). These
books have many circuit and code examples and are very useful for the
beginner (I'm going to need an extra copy of each for reading in the
bathroom :-). "The 8051 Family of Microcontrollers" by Richard H.
Barnett has a lot of detailed technical discussions on a number of
important topics. "The 8051 Microcontroller" by I. Scott MacKenzie
is a good one volume reference. Another book that is supposed to
helpful is "The 8051 Microcontroller: Architecture, Programming and
Applications" by Kenneth J. Ayala. See section 5.2 for more
information on 8051 books.
All the software in the Yeralan/Ahluwalia book mentioned above is
available for downloading from the Rigel web site:
http://www.Rigelcorp.com. They intend for this site to be a showcase
for their products as well as being a great resource for the 8051 and
Siemens C166 family of processors. They will link to as many
different chip manufacuters, software/hardware vendors, and sources
(such as this FAQ) as they can.
NoICE is a PC-hosted debugger (NOT a simulator) for use with a
variety of microprocessor targets. Processors currently supported
are the Z80/Z180, Z8, 8051, 80(1)96, 6809, 68HC11, 65(C)02,
M50740/M38000, and TMS370. A version for the Hitachi H8/300 is
currently in beta test.
The debugger consists of a target-specific DOS program, NOICExxx.EXE,
and a target-resident monitor program (about 1K code). The two
programs communicate via RS-232, at user selectable baud rates from
300 to 57600.
Features include:
- Disassembler, which may also be used without target hardware
- Single step using no interrupts or special target hardware
- Breakpoints and watches
- Source-level debug
- Memory display and editing
- Load Intel Hex and Motorola S1 record files
- Definition of symbols, used in expressions and by the disassembler
- Record and play back files of commands
- Most monitors use no page zero or on-chip RAM
- Utilities to extract line and symbol information for many
assemblers
NoICE may be operated via pull-down menus, using either mouse or
keyboard, or via a command line. Keyboard commands are generally
similar to those of traditional hex monitors.
Shareware. The distributed version is fully functional.
Registration is $25 in the US, $30 elsewhere.
Where to get it:
ftp: the SimTel archive or any of its mirrors
ftp.coast.net in directory SimTel/msdos/debug
CompuServe: GO SDFORUM, library section 12, embedded systems
Or, GO IBMFF and do a keyword search for "NoICE".
You can also register NoICE on-line, adding the cost to
your CompuServe account.
BBS: The Ciarcia Circuit Cellar BBS at 860-871-1988
Questions:
John Hartman
102203.1513@compuserve.com
The freeware version of the Hi-Tech C compiler now produces a
complete executable program, and comes with full libraries. The only
limitations are that there is no command line driver (but the full
GUI interface is included), no library source is provided, and your
user program is limited to 1K of your own code. Any amount of
library code can be linked in (but no, you can't build your own
libraries). There is also a demo version of the XA compiler, with
similar restrictions, but allows up to 2K user code. Available from
their web site: http://www.hitech.com.au
Alistair George sent a short review on the SIM51 simulator from
Werner Hennig-Roleff.
I have discovered a VERY good simulator. The downside is that it
is all in German. But many of the commands can be worked out, as
they are similar. The documentation is incredibly complete, but
also in German. This simulator will do interrupts, serial i/o,
switch port bits, animate, in-line editing and heaps of other
features.
Dunfield has just announced version 3.14 of their development system.
If you are already using this package, or are thinking about it and
you want to get more information, check out the new web page and mail
addresses.
Dunfield Development Systems
Web: http://www.dunfield.com
Email: General information: info@dunfield.com
Sales inquiries/Administration: sales@dunfield.com
Technical inquiries/Support tech@dunfield.com
Take care,
Uncle Russ