An Example 8051 Microprocessor Program

Here is an example of what a program for the 8051 microprocessor looks like. This particular program employs the serial port on the 8051 microprocessor which is an input/output device exactly like the serial port on a PC. Every time the human operator types a character on the PC's keyboard, the 8051 simulator places the corresponding ASCII byte in the 8051 microprocessor's serial port register SBUF. And each time a byte is received over the serial port, an 8051 hardware interrupt occurs, causing execution to branch to a predefined interrupt service vector. In this example program, we have chosen to place assembly code at this interrupt service vector that causes the keyboard letter to be displayed (scrolled) onto 8 consecutive columns of the electronic sign board. This particular program consists of only 42 statements and its operation is fully explained in the on-line Help documentation.

; This program paints on the signboard whatever characters the operator ; types on the computer's keyboard. The 8051 simulator creates a ; "serial port interrupt" each time the operator types an alphabetic ; character. Serial port interrupts are 1 of the 5 types of interrupts ; that an 8051 microprocessor can respond to. Once you have written ; to the IE ("interrupt enable") register, the response to an interrupt ; is automatic and occurs asynchronously to whatever other activity ; the 8051 program is involved in. The response to an interrupt is ; exactly as if the program had performed an LCALL instruction. That ; is, program execution jumps off to an interrupt service routine that ; you have placed at a predefined location in program memory. When ; Intel designed the 8051 the locations for these 5 interrupt service ; routines was permanently fixed. The serial port interrupt that ; this program employs begins at program memory address 0x23. When ; we reach the RETI instruction at the end of the interrupt service ; routine, the 8051 goes back to doing whatever it had been doing ; before it was interrupted. ORG 0x00 ; this statement is not really necessary as it ; is the default behavior of the assembler LJMP Start ; jump over the prog mem locations reserved for ISVs ; (interrupt service vectors) and jump over ; the non-executable DB statements brought in ; by the inclusion of the FontData.txt file. ORG 0x03 ; the ISV for the EXT 0 interrupt is 0x0003 EXT0INT: LJMP Int0Isr ORG 0x0B ; the ISV for the TMR 0 interrupt is 0x000B TMR0INT: LJMP Tmr0Isr ORG 0x13 ; the ISV for the EXT 1 interrupt is 0x0013 EXT1INT: LJMP Int1Isr ORG 0x1B ; the ISV for the TMR 1 interrupt is 0x001B TMR1INT: LJMP Tmr1Isr ORG 0x23 ; the ISV for the Serial Port interrupt is 0x0023 SERINT: LJMP SerIsr INCLUDE "FontData.txt" ORG 0x100 ; the interrupt service vectors consume program memory ; locations 0x03 thru 0x25 = 37 and the DB statements ; in FontData.txt consume another 27*8 = 216 bytes ; (remember there is a space character after Z). ; Hence this program memory address of 0x100 = 256 is ; safely past these items. Start: MOV DPTR,#StartOfImageData ; We initialize the DPTR ("data pointer"), a 16 bit ; SFR ("special function register"), to point to ; the first column of font data (the first column ; of the letter 'A') in program memory. The DPTR ; register continues to hold this same value ; throughout this program. MOV SCON,#0x10 ; assert REN so the serial port is enabled to receive MOV IE,#0x90 ; 10010000B, MSBit is the global intr enable, ; the other bit we raise is ES, the serial ; port interrupt enable MOV A, #0x01 ; we walk this 1 bit across the signboard while ; waiting for an interrupt Loop: RL A ; loop while waiting for an interrupt MOV P0,A SJMP Loop ; If we somehow land in any of the interrupt service routines that this ; program is not prepared to handle we just initiate an infinite loop ; so we can detect the mistake. Int0Isr: ; interrupt service routine for EXT 0 interrupt SJMP Int0Isr Int1Isr: ; interrupt service routine for EXT 1 interrupt SJMP Int1Isr Tmr0Isr: ; interrupt service routine for TMR 0 interrupt SJMP Tmr0Isr Tmr1Isr: ; interrupt service routine for TMR 1 interrupt SJMP Tmr1Isr SerIsr: ; interrupt service routine for the serial port ; interrupt PUSH ACC ; protect the prior value in the ACC since the ; interrupt service routine needs to use it MOV A,SBUF ; read alphabet index from serial buffer SFR LCALL Draw1Char POP ACC ; restore the prior value of the ACC MOV SCON,#0x10 ; clear the RI bit in SCON (leave REN asserted) RETI Draw1Char: ; This is a subroutine which is responsible for outputting exactly 8 ; columns (hence 1 character) of font data to the electric sign board. ; Before you call this subroutine initialize the ACC with the index ; of the desired character. That is, if you want the letter 'C' ; output to the sign board then call this subroutine with ACC = 2. ; We first need to convert the letter index (ranging from 0 to 26) ; to a column index (ranging from 0 to 208). This column index ; will describe the byte offset to that letter's column data. ; the ACC presently holds an alphabet index MOV B,#8 ; each letter has 8 columns MUL AB ; This computes the byte offset beyond ; StartOfImageData where the letter starts. This ; product is guaranteed to be < 256 since the ; entire alphabet only has 216 (27*8) columns ; (remember there is a space char after Z), ; hence we only need to keep (deal with) the ; LSByte of the product. The LSByte is found ; in the ACC following the "MUL AB" instr. ; Within this subroutine we use R0 as a temporary storage location ; for the accumulator's value (we need this because the "MOVC A,@A+DPTR" ; instruction keeps perturbing the accumulator). And we use the ; R1 register to control the loop (that is, decide how many times ; we iterate). Note that R0 is synonymous with data memory location 0 ; and R1 is synonymous with data memory location 1 (at least while the ; 8051 is in its default configuration). MOV R0,A ; preserve this starting column # since the ; upcoming "MOVC A,@A+DPTR" instruction ; replaces the value in the ACC MOV R1,#0 ; we use R1 to control the looping CharLoop: MOV A,R0 ; prepare for upcoming "MOVC A,@A+DPTR" instruction MOVC A,@A+DPTR ; the ACC now holds one column of font data MOV P0,A ; write that column to the sign board INC R0 ; advance to the next column INC R1 ; increment the loop counter CJNE R1,#8,CharLoop ; we loop 8 times in order to output 8 columns RET

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