MCS-51

Intel 8051
Intel P8051 microcontroller
History
PredecessorIntel MCS-48
SuccessorIntel MCS-151

The Intel MCS-51 (commonly termed 8051) is a single chip microcontroller (MCU) series developed by Intel in 1980 for use in embedded systems. The architect of the Intel MCS-51 instruction set was John H. Wharton.[1][2] Intel's original versions were popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, and enhanced binary compatible derivatives remain popular today. It is a complex instruction set computer with separate memory spaces for program instructions and data.

Intel's original MCS-51 family was developed using N-type metal–oxide–semiconductor (NMOS) technology, like its predecessor Intel MCS-48, but later versions, identified by a letter C in their name (e.g., 80C51) use complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technology and consume less power than their NMOS predecessors. This made them more suitable for battery-powered devices.

The family was continued in 1996 with the enhanced 8-bit MCS-151 and the 8/16-bit/32-bit MCS-251 family of binary compatible microcontrollers.[3] While Intel no longer manufactures the MCS-51, MCS-151 and MCS-251 family, enhanced binary compatible derivatives made by numerous vendors remain popular today. Some derivatives integrate a digital signal processor (DSP) or a floating-point unit (coprocessor, FPU). Beyond these physical devices, several companies also offer MCS-51 derivatives as IP cores for use in field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designs.

  1. ^ John Wharton (May 1980). "An Introduction to the Intel MCS-51 Single-Chip Microcomputer Family". Intel Corporation. Application Note AP-69.
  2. ^ Intel 8051 Microprocessor Oral History Panel (PDF), Computer History Museum, September 16, 2008, archived from the original (PDF) on February 25, 2012, retrieved November 17, 2018
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference 1+2-51 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).