he 8051 has three very
general types of memory. To effectively program the 8051 it
is necessary to have a basic understanding of these memory
types.
The memory types are illustrated in the
following graphic. They are: On-Chip Memory, External Code
Memory, and External RAM.
On-Chip Memory refers to any memory
(Code, RAM, or other) that physically exists on the
microcontroller itself. On-chip memory can be of several
types, but we'll get into that shortly.
External Code Memory is code (or
program) memory that resides off-chip. This is often in the
form of an external EPROM.
External RAM is RAM memory that
resides off-chip. This is often in the form of standard
static RAM or flash RAM.
Code memory is the memory that holds the
actual 8051 program that is to be run. This memory is
limited to 64K and comes in many shapes and sizes: Code
memory may be found on-chip, either burned into the
microcontroller as ROM or EPROM. Code may also be stored
completely off-chip in an external ROM or, more
commonly, an external EPROM. Flash RAM is also another
popular method of storing a program. Various combinations of
these memory types may also be used--that is to say, it is
possible to have 4K of code memory on-chip and 64k of
code memory off-chip in an EPROM.
When the program is stored on-chip the 64K
maximum is often reduced to 4k, 8k, or 16k. This varies
depending on the version of the chip that is being used.
Each version offers specific capabilities and one of the
distinguishing factors from chip to chip is how much
ROM/EPROM space the chip has.
However, code memory is most commonly
implemented as off-chip EPROM. This is especially true in
low-cost development systems and in systems developed by
students.
Programming Tip:
Since code memory is restricted to 64K, 8051 programs are
limited to 64K. Some assemblers and compilers offer ways
to get around this limit when used with specially wired
hardware. However, without such special compilers and
hardware, programs are limited to 64K.
As an obvious opposite of Internal RAM,
the 8051 also supports what is called External RAM.
As the name suggests, External RAM is any
random access memory which is found off-chip. Since
the memory is off-chip it is not as flexible in terms of
accessing, and is also slower. For example, to increment an
Internal RAM location by 1 requires only 1 instruction and 1
instruction cycle. To increment a 1-byte value stored in
External RAM requires 4 instructions and 7 instruction
cycles. In this case, external memory is 7 times slower!
What External RAM loses in speed and
flexibility it gains in quantity. While Internal RAM is
limited to 128 bytes (256 bytes with an 8052), the 8051
supports External RAM up to 64K.
Programming Tip:
The 8051 may only address 64k of RAM. To expand RAM beyond
this limit requires programming and hardware tricks. You
may have to do this "by hand" since many compilers and
assemblers, while providing support for programs in excess
of 64k, do not support more than 64k of RAM. This is
rather strange since it has been my experience that
programs can usually fit in 64k but often RAM is what is
lacking. Thus if you need more than 64k of RAM, check to
see if your compiler supports it-- but if it doesn't, be
prepared to do it by hand.
As mentioned at the beginning of this
chapter, the 8051 includes a certain amount of on-chip
memory. On-chip memory is really one of two types: Internal
RAM and Special Function Register (SFR) memory. The layout
of the 8051's internal memory is presented in the following
memory map:
As is illustrated in this map, the 8051 has
a bank of 128 bytes of Internal RAM. This Internal
RAM is found on-chip on the 8051 so it is the fastest
RAM available, and it is also the most flexible in terms of
reading, writing, and modifying its contents. Internal RAM
is volatile, so when the 8051 is reset this memory is
cleared.
The 128 bytes of internal ram is subdivided
as shown on the memory map. The first 8 bytes (00h - 07h)
are "register bank 0". By manipulating certain SFRs, a
program may choose to use register banks 1, 2, or 3. These
alternative register banks are located in internal RAM in
addresses 08h through 1Fh. We'll discuss "register banks"
more in a later chapter. For now it is sufficient to know
that they "live" and are part of internal RAM.
Bit Memory also lives and is part of
internal RAM. We'll talk more about bit memory very shortly,
but for now just keep in mind that bit memory actually
resides in internal RAM, from addresses 20h through 2Fh.
The 80 bytes remaining of Internal RAM, from
addresses 30h through 7Fh, may be used by user variables
that need to be accessed frequently or at high-speed. This
area is also utilized by the microcontroller as a storage
area for the operating stack. This fact severely
limits the 8051s stack since, as illustrated in the memory
map, the area reserved for the stack is only 80 bytes--and
usually it is less since this 80 bytes has to be shared
between the stack and user variables.
The 8051 uses 8 "R" registers which are used
in many of its instructions. These "R" registers are
numbered from 0 through 7 (R0, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6, and
R7). These registers are generally used to assist in
manipulating values and moving data from one memory location
to another. For example, to add the value of R4 to the
Accumulator, we would execute the following instruction:
ADD A,R4
Thus if the Accumulator (A) contained the
value 6 and R4 contained the value 3, the Accumulator would
contain the value 9 after this instruction was executed.
However, as the memory map shows, the "R"
Register R4 is really part of Internal RAM. Specifically, R4
is address 04h. This can be see in the bright green section
of the memory map. Thus the above instruction accomplishes
the same thing as the following operation:
ADD A,04h
This instruction adds the value found in
Internal RAM address 04h to the value of the Accumulator,
leaving the result in the Accumulator. Since R4 is really
Internal RAM 04h, the above instruction effectively
accomplished the same thing.
But watch out! As the memory map shows, the
8051 has four distinct register banks. When the 8051 is
first booted up, register bank 0 (addresses 00h through 07h)
is used by default. However, your program may instruct the
8051 to use one of the alternate register banks; i.e.,
register banks 1, 2, or 3. In this case, R4 will no longer
be the same as Internal RAM address 04h. For example, if
your program instructs the 8051 to use register bank 3, "R"
register R4 will now be synonomous with Internal RAM address
1Ch.
The concept of register banks adds a great
level of flexibility to the 8051, especially when dealing
with interrupts (we'll talk about interrupts later).
However, always remember that the register banks really
reside in the first 32 bytes of Internal RAM.
Programming Tip:
If you only use the first register bank (i.e. bank 0), you
may use Internal RAM locations 08h through 1Fh for your
own use. But if you plan to use register banks 1, 2, or 3,
be very careful about using addresses below 20h as you may
end up overwriting the value of your "R" registers!
The 8051, being a communications-oriented
microcontroller, gives the user the ability to access a
number of bit variables. These variables may be
either 1 or 0.
There are 128 bit variables available to the
user, numberd 00h through 7Fh. The user may make use of
these variables with commands such as SETB and CLR. For
example, to set bit number 24 (hex) to 1 you would execute
the instruction:
SETB 24h
It is important to note that Bit Memory is
really a part of Internal RAM. In fact, the 128 bit
variables occupy the 16 bytes of Internal RAM from 20h
through 2Fh. Thus, if you write the value FFh to Internal
RAM address 20h youve effectively set bits 00h through 07h.
That is to say that:
As illustrated above, bit memory isnt really
a new type of memory. Its really just a subset of Internal
RAM. But since the 8051 provides special instructions to
access these 16 bytes of memory on a bit by bit basis it is
useful to think of it as a separate type of memory. However,
always keep in mind that it is just a subset of Internal
RAM--and that operations performed on Internal RAM can
change the values of the bit variables.
Programming Tip:
If your program does not use bit variables, you may use
Internal RAM locations 20h through 2Fh for your own use.
But if you plan to use bit variables, be very careful
about using addresses from 20h through 2Fh as you may end
up overwriting the value of your bits!
Bit variables 00h through 7Fh are for
user-defined functions in their programs. However, bit
variables 80h and above are actually used to access certain
SFRs on a bit-by-bit basis. For example, if output lines
P0.0 through P0.7 are all clear (0) and you want to turn on
the P0.0 output line you may either execute:
MOV P0,#01h
or you may execute:
SETB 80h
Both these instructions accomplish the same
thing. However, using the SETB command will turn on the P0.0
line without effecting the status of any of the other P0
output lines. The MOV command effectively turns off all the
other output lines which, in some cases, may not be
acceptable.
Programming Tip:
By default, the 8051 initializes the Stack Pointer
(SP) to 07h when the microcontroller is booted. This means
that the stack will start at address 08h and expand
upwards. If you will be using the alternate register banks
(banks 1, 2 or 3) you must initialize the stack pointer to
an address above the highest register bank you will be
using, otherwise the stack will overwrite your alternate
register banks. Similarly, if you will be using bit
variables it is usually a good idea to initialize the
stack pointer to some value greater than 2Fh to guarantee
that your bit variables are protected from the stack.
Special Function Registers (SFRs) are areas
of memory that control specific functionality of the 8051
processor. For example, four SFRs permit access to the 8051s
32 input/output lines. Another SFR allows a program to read
or write to the 8051s serial port. Other SFRs allow the user
to set the serial baud rate, control and access timers, and
configure the 8051s interrupt system.
When programming, SFRs have the illusion of
being Internal Memory. For example, if you want to write the
value "1" to Internal RAM location 50 hex you would execute
the instruction:
MOV 50h,#01h
Similarly, if you want to write the value
"1" to the 8051s serial port you would write this value to
the SBUF SFR, which has an SFR address of 99 Hex.
Thus, to write the value "1" to the serial port you would
execute the instruction:
MOV 99h,#01h
As you can see, it appears that the SFR is
part of Internal Memory. This is not the case. When using
this method of memory access (its called direct address),
any instruction that has an address of 00h through 7Fh
refers to an Internal RAM memory address; any instruction
with an address of 80h through FFh refers to an SFR control
register.
