Developing/compiling software

your

I am using ImageCraft for the AVR. Cheap and good. Excellent support.

Meindert

Atmel make a lot of different microcontrollers - are you talking about their 8051 devices, or something else? And have you looked at other architectures? There a couple of dozen other cpu architectures that are better suited to C development than the 8051, and have better ranges of tools.

Second vote here for Imagecraft. Been using it professionally for several years.

Do ImageCraft make 8051 tools?

D'oh!

for (i = 0; i < 100; ++i) { printf("Atmel is not one-to-one with AVRs!\n"); }

I prefer gcc. It's the compiler I use for 8 other processors, and I find it helps productivity to use the same set of tools on multiple projects even when the processor differs.

The Keil tools are an excellent choice for 8051 development. In particular their simulator is really good. Allows device specific settings, so you can simulate the I/O on your chip. You can also have it use your PC serial port as the serial connection to the simulation.

Is there a GCC for the 8051? SDCC yes, GCC, as far as I know, no.

Oops. I didn't realize the OP meant 8051. I assumed he meant AVR, AVR32, or ARM. To answer you question, there isn't an

There is, however, SDCC, which does have an 8051 back-end.

With a bit of luck, the OP is at an early enough stage that he can pick something other than the 8051 before it is too late...

Let's hope he will not pick a PIC. :)

Ciao Jack

Is there something wrong with using an 8052 based CPU for a low end project. Keil Tools are fine, but are pricey. But if the project is small some

In message , Lodewicus Maas writes

For 8051 there are no better tools.

In message , Meindert Sprang writes

And the Imagecraft AVR compiler will work with the 8051?

READ THE QUESTION

BTW there is no better 8051 compiler than Keil

AFAIK there is no gcc for 8051

In message , FreeRTOS info writes

There is no comparison between the SDCC and Keil

It's kind of an odd architecture (by current standards). Well suited for assembler coding. The bit-addressable registers (including I/O ports) avoid the need to, e.g., do a read-re/set-write sequence to twiddle a single flag. The external memory interface isn't all that common on uCs and can be used to address memory-mapped I/O peripherals (external synchro-digital converters, for example).

So, there's nothing intrinsically "wrong" with it, and it can be a very good fit for some projects. Just need to match the problem domain with the appropriate solution set.

I hope you aren't finding the many English answers complex enough to make further discussion hard for you. I see you haven't added anything yet, which concerns me. You mention Atmel and Asem51v1.3, so I'm assuming this is the AT89 series from Atmel?

Some questions that are important to know, before discussing things: (1) Hobby or professional application? (Not clear, but I'm leaning towards believing this is for professional use.) (2) Assembly or c? (You mention asem51v1.3, but also mentioned 'compiler software', so it's not clear to me. It's possible when you talk about 'Keil software' you may only care about the debugger/JTAG capability, too. Can you clarify this?) (3) Project size/complexity? (4) Unique requirements?

If budget is not a concern; this is a large, professional application; and you intend on using the c language for it, then the main question I'd have regarding using Keil's c compiler would be the quality of their after-sale support for you and their product documentation. (I already believe they have a good quality compiler.) How important those are will depend some on your own skills, of course.

You might be able to test this a little by seeing how they treat you with pre-sale questions -- but test things in several ways. Including some rather detailed technical questions, beforehand. Ask for some names they can offer you, unaffiliated with them otherwise, whom you can talk with a little about their experiences. And do some research on your own to get a sense. This may be worth a little prodding and research at the price point they are charging. Get a manual and look it over, too.

Do the same for any supplier you consider. In the end, whatever your choice, you will spend a fair amount of your time learning to properly use the tools. Even if you have good hand-holding from the supplier, excellent documentation, or an energetic and healthy users' group, you will still have to put in a lot of your own time. It's always good to know what to expect and plan for. So, the effort won't be entirely wasted, even if the results don't materially change your final decision.

I haven't used Keil for 20 years. So my early experiences will be of almost no use -- they have changed hands probably more than once since then and, besides, the entire environment around them has also changed. But I think it would help others respond to you better if you could say a little more about your situation.

Jon