University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

University of Portsmouth
Faculty of Technology
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering
Content
Module:
Module Code:
Module Topic:
Lecturer:

Principles of DigitalSystems
B122L
Microcontroller Applications
Branislav Vuksanovic

Lecture Notes:

Basics of C Programming
for
Embedded Systems

This document reviews some general rules of C programming and

introduces certain specifics of C programming for 8051 series of
microcontrollers. Simple C programs are listed and discussed in details
to illustrate the main points. This should provide reader with sufficient
knowledge to develop and test other, more complicated C programs for
small scale embedded systems employing this microcontrollers.

Introduction to C Programming for Embedded Systems ............... 2

Template for Embedded C Program ............................................. 3
C Directives .................................................................................. 4
Example 1 ..................................................................................... 5
Programming Time Delays ........................................................... 6
Indefinite Loops ............................................................................ 6
Variables in Embedded C ............................................................. 7
Example 2 ..................................................................................... 8
C Functions .................................................................................. 9
Example 3 ..................................................................................... 9
Other Loops in C......................................................................... 10
Example 4 ................................................................................... 10
Making Decisions in the Program ............................................... 11
? Operator .................................................................................. 11
Example 5 ................................................................................... 12
Short Hand Notations ................................................................. 12
Logical and Bit-wise Operations.................................................. 12
Arrays ......................................................................................... 13
Example 6 ................................................................................... 13
Example 7 ................................................................................... 14

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Introduction to C Programming for Embedded

Systems
-

most common programming languages for embedded systems are

C, BASIC and assembly languages
C used for embedded systems is slightly different compared to C
used for general purpose (under a PC platform)
programs for embedded systems are usually expected to monitor
and control external devices and directly manipulate and use the
internal architecture of the processor such as interrupt handling,
timers, serial communications and other available features.
there are many factors to consider when selecting languages for
embedded systems

Efficiency - Programs must be as short as possible

and memory must be used efficiently.

Speed - Programs must run as fast as possible.

Ease of implementation

Maintainability

Readability

C compilers for embedded systems must provide ways to examine

and utilise various features of the microcontroller's internal and
external architecture; this includes:

Interrupt Service Routines

Reading from and writing to internal and external

memories

Bit manipulation

Implementation of timers / counters

Examination of internal registers

most embedded C compilers (as well as ordinary C compilers) have

been developed supporting the ANSI [American National Standard

for Information] but compared to ordinary C they may differ in terms

of the outcome of some of the statements
standard C compiler, communicates with the hardware components
via the operating system of the machine but the C compiler for the
embedded system must communicate directly with the processor
and its components

For example consider this statement:

printf(" C - Programming for 8051\n");

In standard C running on a PC platform, the statement causes the

string inside the quotation to be displayed on the screen. The same
statement in an embedded system causes the string to be transmitted
via the serial port pin (i.e TXD) of the microcontroller provided the serial
port has been initialized and enabled.
-

Another example:
c=getch();

In standard C running on a PC platform this causes a character to be

read from the keyboard on a PC. In an embedded system the
instruction causes a character to be read from the serial pin (i.e. RXD)
of the microcontroller.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

at
at
at
at
at
at

Template for Embedded C Program

#include <reg66x.h>
void main(void)
{
// body of the program goes here
}
-

the first line of the template is the C directive #include <reg66x.h>

this tells the compiler that during compilation, it should look into this
file for symbols not defined within the program
reg66x.h file simple defines the internal special function registers
and their addresses
part of reg66x.h file is shown below
/*-------------------------------------------*/
/* Include file for 8xC66x SFR Definitions
*/
/* Copyright Raisonance SA, 1990-2000
*/
/*-------------------------------------------*/
/*
at
at
at
at
at
at
at
at
at
at
at

BYTE Registers
0x80 sfr P0
;
0x90 sfr P1
;
0xA0 sfr P2
;
0xB0 sfr P3
;
0xD0 sfr PSW ;
0xE0 sfr ACC ;
0xF0 sfr B
;
0x81 sfr SP
;
0x82 sfr DPL ;
0x83 sfr DPH ;
0x87 sfr PCON ;

0x88
0x89
0x8A
0x8B
0x8C
0x8D

sfr
sfr
sfr
sfr
sfr
sfr

TCON
TMOD
TL0
TL1
TH0
TH1

;
;
;
;
;
;

In this file, the numerical addresses of different special function

registers inside the processor have been defined using symbolic
names, e.g. P0 the symbol used for port 0 of the processor is assigned
its corresponding numeric address 80 in hexadecimal. Note that in C
numbers that are hexadecimal are represented by the 0x.
-

*/
-

the next line in the template declares the beginning of the body of
the main part of the program
the main part of the program is treated as any other function in C
program
every C program should have a main function
functions are like procedures and subroutines in other languages
C function may be written in one of the following formats:

it may require some parameters to work on

it may return a value that it evaluates or determines

it may neither require parameters nor return any value

if a function requires any parameters, they are placed inside the
brackets following the name of the function
if a function should return a value, it is declared just before the name
of the function
when the word void is used before the function name it indicates
that the function does not return any value
when the word void is used between the brackets it indicates that
the function does not require any parameters
main function declaration:

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

void main(void)
therefore, indicates that the main function requires no parameters and
that it does not return any value.
-

what the function must perform will be placed within the curly
brackets following function declaration (your C code)

#define ON 0xFF
-

C Directives
-

#include is one of many C directives

it is used to insert the contents of another file into the source code of
the current file, as previously explained
there are two slightly different form of using #include directive:

#define directive associates a symbolic name with some numerical

value or text.
wherever that symbolic name occurs after the directive the
preprocessor will replace it with the specified value or text
the value of ON in the program can be defined as 0xFF throughout
the program using:

this approach may be used to define various numerical values in the

program using more readable and understandable symbols.
the advantage of using symbols rather than the actual numerical
values is that, if you need to change the value, all you need to do is
to change the number that is assigned to the symbol in the define
statement rather than changing it within the program which in some
cases may be a large program and therefore tedious to do

#include < filename >

or
#include filename
-

the first form (with the angle brackets) will search for the include file
in certain locations known to the compiler and it is used to include
standard system header files (such are stdlib.h and stdio.h in
standard C)
the second form (with the double quotes) will search for the file in
the same directory as the source file and this is used for header files
specific to the program and usually written by the programmer
all directives are preceded with a # symbol
another useful directive is a #define directive

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Example 1

P1 = ON;

Program to turn the LEDs on port 1 ON (see figure).

#include <reg66x.h>
void main(void)
{
P1 = 0xFF;
}
The body of the main function consists of just one statement and that is
P1=0xFF. This tells the compiler to send the number 0xFF which is the
hexadecimal equivalent of 255 or in binary (11111111) to port 1 which
in turn causes the 8 LEDs in port 1 to turn ON.
Note that just like the line in the main body of the program, every line of
a C program must end with a semicolon (i.e. ;) except in some special
occasions (to be discussed later)
Alternative version of this program using directive #define.
#include <reg66x.h>
#define ON 0xFF
void main(void)
{
P1 = ON;
}

LEDs and Switches Interfaced to Port 1 and Port 0 of 8051

Microcontroller

In the above example the value of ON is defined as 0xFF using:

#define ON 0xFF
and the statement in the body of the program is then written as:

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Programming Time Delays

Indefinite Loops
-

for various reasons it might be necessary to include some sort of

time delay routine in most of the embedded system programs
sophisticated and very accurate techniques using timers/counters in
the processor exist to achieve this
one simple approach (not involving timers) is to let the processor
count for a while before it continues
this can be achieved using a loop in the program where program
does not do anything useful except incrementing the loop counter:

embedded system might be required to continuously execute a

section of a program indefinitely
to achieve this indefinite loop (loop without any exit condition) can
be used
the statement that performs this is:
for(;;)
{
}

for(j=0; j<=255; j=j+1)

{
;
}

Part of the program to be repeated indefinitely must then be placed in

between the curly brackets after the for(;;) statement.

Once the loop counter reaches the value of 255 program will exit the
loop and continue execution with the first statement following the loop
section
-

for a longer delays we can use a nested loop structure, i.e. loop
within the loop:
for(i=0; i<=255; i=i+1)
{
for(j=0; j<=255; j=j+1)
{
;
}
}

Note that with this structure the program counts to 255 x 255.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Variables in Embedded C
-

variables in C program are expected to change within a program

variables in C may consist of a single letter or a combination of a
number of letters and numbers
spaces and punctuation are not allowed as part of a variable name
C is a case sensitive language (therefore I and i are treated as two
separate variables)
in a C program variables must be declared immediately after the
curly bracket marking the beginning of a function
to declare a variable, its type must be defined, it provides
information to the compiler of its storage requirement
some of the more common types supported by C are listed below

Type

Size

Range

unsigned char

1 byte

0 to 255

(signed) char

1 byte

-128 - +127

unsigned int

2 bytes

0 - 65535

(signed) int

2 bytes

-32768 - +32767

bit

1 bit

0 or 1
(RAM bit-addressable part of
memory only)

sbit

1 bit

0 or 1
(SFR bit-addressable part of
memory only)

sfr

8 bit

RAM addresses 80h-FFh only

definition of type of a variable in a C program is an important factor

in the efficiency of a program
depending on the type of a variable the compiler reserves memory
spaces for that variable
consider the following guidelines when selecting the type of
variables:

if speed is important and sign is not important, make

every variable unsigned

unsigned char is the most common type to use in

programming 8051 microcontroller as most registers
in the processors are of size 8-bits (i.e one byte)

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Example 2

Used delay routine is not very accurate so the delay should only
approximately be 1 s.

Program to indefinitely flash all LEDs on port 1 at a rate of 1 second.

Note that the first line immediately after the beginning of the main
function is used to declare two variables in the program, I and j:

#include <reg66x.h>
void main(void)
{
unsigned char i,j;
for(;;)
{
P1 = 0xFF; /* Turn All LEDs ON */
for(i=0; i<=255; i=i+1)
{
for(j=0; j<=255; j=j+1)
{
;
}
}
P1 = 0x00; /* Turn All LEDs OFF */
for(i=0; i<=255; i=i+1)
{
for(j=0; j<=255; j=j+1)
{
;
}
}
}
}

unsigned char i,j;

Note that this program contains two identical time delay routines first
one keeps ON state on LEDs for app. 1 second and the second one
keeps OFF state on LEDs for the same amount of time. Without those
two delays LEDs would switch ON and OFF so rapidly that the whole
set would constantly appear as not fully turned ON set of LEDs.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

C Functions
-

when a part of a program must be repeated more than once, a more

efficient way of implementing is to call the block to be repeated a
name and simple use the name when the block is needed.
this leads to implementation of C function in the program
the function (block) must be declared before the main program and
defined, normally immediately after the main program is ended
rules for function declaration are same as for declaration of main
function
void DELAY (void)

Above function declaration informs the compiler that there will be a

function called DELAY, requiring no parameters and returning no
parameters.
Note the absence of semicolon at the end of function declaration.
-

a function is defined in the same way as the main function (an open
curly bracket marks the beginning of the function, variables used
within the function are then declared in the next line before the body
of the function is implemented, the function ends with a closed curly
bracket)
the name of a function must follow the rules for the name of a
variable - the function name may not have spaces, or any
punctuation
a use of functions is advisable as functions make programs shorter
and readable, a shorter program also requires less space in the
memory and therefore better efficiency
function is called in the main program using function name and
appropriate parameters (if any)

Example 3
In this example program from Example 2, to indefinitely flash all LEDs
on port 1 at a rate of 1 second is rewritten using function to generate
time delay.
#include <reg66x.h>
void DELAY(void);
void main(void)
{
for(;;)
{
P1 = 0xFF;
DELAY();
P1 = 0x00;
DELAY();
}
}

/* Turn All LEDs ON */

/* Wait for 1 second */
/* Turn All LEDs OFF */

void DELAY(void)
{
unsigned char i, j;
for(i=0; i<=255; i=i+1)
{
for(j=0; j<=255; j=j+1)
{
;
}
}
}

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Other Loops in C
Example 4
Two other loops exist in C language - <dowhile> and <while>.
Instructions to generate single loop delay using those two loop
techniques are given below.

i=0;
do
{
i=i+1;
} while(i<=255);

i=0;
while(i<=255)
{
i=i+1;
}

Program from Examples 2 and 3 is rewritten and modified so that LEDs

on port 1 flash with 1 s time delay only 10 times.
#include <reg66x.h>
void DELAY(void);
void main(void)
{
unsigned char N;
N=0;
do
{
P1 = 0xFF;
DELAY();
P1 = 0x00;
DELAY();
N=N+1;
} while(N<10);
}

/* Turn All LEDs ON */

/* Wait for 1 second */
/* Turn All LEDs OFF */

void DELAY(void)
{
unsigned char i,j;
for(i=0; i<=255; i=i+1)
{
for(j=0; j<=255; j=j+1)
{
;
}
}
}

10

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Making Decisions in the Program

-

? Operator

an important feature of any embedded system is the ability to test

the value of any parameter in the system and based on the outcome
of this test take an appropriate action
the parameter tested must be a program variable and C construct
usually employed to perform test is the <if> statement
effect of this statement is illustrated on the flowchart below

in the C program operator <?> can be used as a short hand version

of the if statement discussed above
flowchart and line of code provided below explain the effect of using
this operator

Yes

False

Condition
?

Action B

B>C
?

No

True
A=X

A=Y

Action A

A = (B > C) ? X : Y;
-

C instructions to achieve this action are

In other words if B is greater than C then let A=X otherwise let A=Y.

if(condition)
{
Perform Action A
}
else
{
Perform Action B
}

11

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Example 5
Program to operate the LEDs attached to port 1 as a BCD (Binary
Coded Decimal) up counter. A BCD up counter is one, which counts in
binary from 0 to 9 and then repeats from 0 again.
#include <reg66x.h>
void DELAY(void);
void main(void)
{
unsigned char N=0;
for(;;)
{
P1 = N;
/* Turn All LEDs ON */
DELAY();
/* Wait for a while */
N=N+1;
if(N>9)
{
N=0;
}
}
}
void DELAY(void)
{
unsigned char i,j;
for(i=0; i<=255; i=i+1)
{
for(j=0; j<=255; j=j+1)
{
;
}
}
}

Short Hand Notations

Statement
A=A+1
A=A-1
A=A+B
A=A-B
A=A*B
A=A/B

Short hand
A++
A-A+=B
A-=B
A*=B
A/=B

Explanation
Increment A
Decrement A
Let A=A+B
Let A=A-B
A=A*B
A=A/B

Logical and Bit-wise Operations

Operation
NOT
AND
OR
EX-OR
Shift Right by n-bits
Shift Left by n-bits

In Assembly
CPL A
ANL A,#DATA
ORL A,#DATA
XRL A,#DATA
RRA
RLA

In C
~
&

^
>>
<<

Example in C
A=~A;
A= A & DATA
A= A DATA
A= A ^ DATA
A=A>>n
A=A<<n

The bit-wise AND may be used to perform a bit mask operation. This
operation may be used to isolate part of a string of bits, or to determine
whether a particular bit is 1 or 0. For example, to determine whether the
third bit in the 4 bit patter is 1, a bitwise AND is applied to it along with
another bit pattern containing 1 in the third bit, and 0 in all other bits,
Given a bit pattern 0101 we can bit-wise AND it with 0010. Result is 0.
We therefore know that the third bit in the original pattern was 0. Using
bit-wise AND in this manner is called bit masking. The 0 values in the
mask pattern 0010 mask the bits that are not of concern, in this case.

12

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Arrays
-

arrays are used when it is necessary to store larger number of data

of same type into consecutive memory locations where they can
easily be accessed by the program at some later stage
as any other data in the program array must be declared at the
beginning of the main program
upon reading this declaration compiler will reserve appropriate
number of memory locations to store the array elements
unsigned char T[20];

This array declaration will cause the compiler to reserve 20 consecutive

memory locations and call it T. T is now the name of that particular
array. Note that number inside the square brackets indicate the size of
declared array.

Example 6
Two versions of the program that reads the state of the switches on port
0 and operates the LEDs on port 1 accordingly. For example if switch
S0 is pressed, program will turn LED0 ON, if S2 and S3 are pressed,
then LED 2 and 3 must turn ON and so on.

// version 1
#include <reg66x.h>
void main(void)
{
for(;;)
{
P1=P0;
}
}

// version 2
#include <reg66x.h>
#define SWITCHES P0
#define LEDS P1
void main(void)
{
for(;;)
{
LEDS = SWITCHES;
}
}

13

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

void DELAY(void)
{
unsigned char i,j;
for(i=0; i<=255; i=i+1)
{
for(j=0; j<=255; j=j+1)
{
;
}
}
}

Example 7
This program monitors switch S0 attached to the pin 0 of port 0. When
this switch is pressed, it flashes the single LED attached to pin 0 of port
1 ten times. Previously discussed bit masking technique is used to test
the value of switch S0.
#include <reg66x.h>
#define ON 0x01
#define OFF 0x00
#define mask 0x01

// 00000001

void DELAY(void);
void main(void)
{
unsigned char S0;
unsigned char N;

Another way to access a single pin on any port of 8051 is to make use
of special sbit data type. This data type provides access to bitaddressable SFRs and bit-addressable memory space within the
processor.
Line:

for(;;)
{
S0=P0&mask; // masking bits
while(S0)
// wait for key press
{
for(N=0;N<10;N++)
{
P1=ON;
DELAY();
P1=OFF;
DELAY();
}
S0=P0&mask;
}
}

sbit S0=P0^0;
creates an sbit type variable S0 that points to pin 0 of port 0.

14

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Using bit addressing ability of 8051 C compiler, alternative version of

the program can be written:
#include <reg66x.h>
#define ON 0xFF
#define OFF 0x00
sbit S0 = P0^0;
void DELAY(void);
void main(void)
{
unsigned char N;

for(;;)
{
while(S0)
{
for(N=0;N<10;N++)
{
P1=ON;
DELAY();
P1=OFF;
DELAY();
}
}
}
}

Note that because there is no way to indirectly address registers in the

8051, addresses for sbit type variables must be declared outside of any
functions within the code.

15

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

University of Portsmouth
Faculty of Technology
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering
Content
Module:
Module Code:
Module Topic:
Lecturer:

Principles of Digital Systems

B122L
Microcontroller Applications
Branislav Vuksanovic

Lecture Notes:

Programming Timers on 8051

The purpose of this handout is to explain how to use the internal 8051
timers to generate time delays.

Uses of Timers & Counters .................................................. 2

8051 Timers Operation ........................................................ 2
Timer Registers.................................................................... 2
TMOD SFR .......................................................................... 3
13-bit Time Mode (mode 0).................................................. 4
16-bit Time Mode (mode 1).................................................. 4
8-bit Time Mode (mode 2).................................................... 4
Split Timer Mode (mode 3) .................................................. 5
TCON SFR........................................................................... 5
Timer Delay and Timer Reload Value .................................. 6
Example 1 ............................................................................ 7
Example 2 ............................................................................ 7
Example 3 ............................................................................ 8
Example 4 ............................................................................ 8
Alternative Technique for Timers Loading ........................... 9
Example 5 ............................................................................ 9
Example 6 ............................................................................ 9

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Uses of Timers & Counters

The 8051 is equipped with two timers, both of which may be controlled,
and configured individually. The 8051 timers have three general
functions:
1) Keeping time and/or calculating the amount of time between
events (interval timing mode)
2) Counting the events themselves (event counting mode)
3) Generating baud rates for the serial port
The first two uses will be discussed in this handout while the use of
timers for baud rate generation will be considered in the handout
related to serial ports.

8051 Timers Operation

A timer counts up when incremented by the microcontroller or some
external source. When the timer reaches the maximum value and is
subsequently incremented, it will reset- or overflow -back to 0. This will
also set the timer overflow flag in one of timer SFRs.
When a timer is in interval timer mode (as opposed to event counter
mode) and correctly configured, it will increment by 1 every machine
cycle. If the machine cycle consists of 6 crystal pulses a timer running
on the microcontroller with 11.0592 MHz crystal will be incremented
1843200 times per second since:

11.0592 106
= 1843200
6
This means that if the timer has counted from 0 to 100000 a 0.05425
seconds or 54.25 milliseconds have passed since:

100000
= 0.05425
1843200

A reverse calculation can also be made, so if for example, we want to

know how many times timer needs to increment during 20 milliseconds
we need to perform following calculation:

0.02 1843200=36864
It is therefore necessary to have exactly 36864 timer increments to
achieve a time period of 20 milliseconds. This is actually a way to
measure time using timers on the microcontroller by counting the
number of timer increments during the measured time period. All that is
now needed is to learn how to control and initialise timers to provide the
needed information. This is done through the proper setting of a
number of SFRs related to timer functions and explained in following
sections of this document.

Timer Registers
Two 8051 timers are called Timer0 and Timer1 and they share two
SFRs (TMOD and TCON) which control the timers, and each timer also
has two SFRs dedicated solely to itself (TH0/TL0 and TH1/TL1).
Timer registers names; brief descriptions and addresses are given in
the table below.
Timer 0 has two SFRs dedicated exclusively to itself: TH0 and TL0.
Those are high and low bytes of the timer. When Timer 0 has a value of
0, both TH0 and TL0 will contain 0. When Timer 0 has the value of for
example 1000, TH0 will hold the high byte of the value (3 decimal) and
TL0 will contain the low byte of the value (232 decimal). The final value
of timer register is obtained by multiplying the high byte value by 256
and adding the low byte value to this value:

TH0 256 + TL0 = 1000

3 256 + 232 = 1000
Timer 1 is identical to Timer 0, but its SFRs are TH1 and TL1.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

SFR Name

Description

SFR Address

TH0

Timer 0 High Byte

8Ch

TL0

Timer 0 Low Byte

8Ah

TH1

Timer 1 High Byte

8Dh

Bit

Name

GATE 1

C/T1

When this bit is set the timer will count events

on T1 (P3.5). When this bit is clear the timer
will be incremented every machine cycle.

T1M1

Timer mode bit (see table below)

T1M0

Timer mode bit (see table below)

GATE 0

C/T0

When this bit is set the timer will count events

on T0 (P3.4). When this bit is clear the timer
will be incremented every machine cycle.

TMOD SFR and its individual bits

T0M1

Timer mode bit (see table below)

The TMOD SFR is used to control the mode of operation of both timers.
Each bit of the SFR gives the microcontroller specific information
concerning how to run a timer. The high four bits (bits 4 through 7)
relate to Timer 1 whereas the low four bits (bits 0 through 3) perform
the same functions, but for timer 0.
The individual bits of TMOD and their functions are detailed in the table
below.

T0M0

Timer mode bit (see table below)

TL1

Timer 1 Low Byte

8Bh

TCON

Timer Control

88h

TMOD

Timer Mode

89h

TMOD SFR

Explanation of Function

When this bit is set the timer will only run

when INT1 (P3.3) is high.
When this bit is clear the timer will run
regardless of the state of INT1.

When this bit is set the timer will only run

when INT0 (P3.2) is high.
When this bit is clear the timer will run
regardless of the state of INT1.

The modes of operation determined with four bits from the TMOD
register are:
TxM1

TxM0

Timer Mode

Mode Description

13-bit Timer

16-bit Timer

8-bit auto-reload

Split timer mode

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

13-bit Time Mode (mode 0)

Timer mode "0" is a 13-bit timer. This mode is used to maintain
compatability of 8051 with the older generation microcontroller, the
8048. Generally the 13-bit timer mode is not used in new development.
When the timer is in 13-bit mode, TLx will count from 0 to 31. When TLx
is incremented from 31, it will "reset" to 0 and increment THx. Thus,
effectively, only 13 bits of the two timer bytes are being used: bits 0-4 of
TLx and bits 0-7 of THx. This also means, in essence, the timer can
only contain 8192 values. If you set a 13-bit timer to 0, it will overflow
back to zero 8192 machine cycles later.

8-bit Time Mode (mode 2)

16-bit Time Mode (mode 1)

Timer mode "1" is a 16-bit timer. This is a very commonly used mode. It
functions just like 13-bit mode except that all 16 bits are used.
TLx is incremented from 0 to 255. When TLx is incremented from 255,
it resets to 0 and causes THx to be incremented by 1. Since this is a full
16-bit timer, the timer may contain up to 65536 distinct values. If you
set a 16-bit timer to 0, it will overflow back to 0 after 65,536 machine
cycles.

Timer mode "2" is an 8-bit auto-reload mode. In this mode THx holds
the "reload value" and TLx is the timer itself. Thus, TLx starts counting
up. When TLx reaches 255 and is subsequently incremented, instead
of resetting to 0 (as in the case of modes 0 and 1), it will be reset to the
value stored in THx.
In mode 2 THx is always set to a known value and TLx is the SFR that
is constantly incremented.
In this mode microcontroller hardware takes care of checking for the
timer overfow and reloading of the timer, thus saving some of the
processing time.
The auto-reload mode is very commonly used for establishing a baud
rate necessary for the serial communications.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Split Timer Mode (mode 3)

TCON SFR

Timer mode "3" is a split-timer mode. When Timer 0 is placed in mode

3, it essentially becomes two separate 8-bit timers. Timer 0 is TL0 and
Timer 1 is TH0. Both timers count from 0 to 255 and overflow back to 0.
All the bits that are related to Timer 1 will now be tied to TH0.
While Timer 0 is in split mode, the real Timer 1 (i.e. TH1 and TL1) can
be put into modes 0, 1 or 2 normally - however, you may not start or
stop the real timer 1 since the bits that do that are now linked to TH0.
The real timer 1, in this case, will be incremented every machine cycle
no matter what.
This mode might be used if there is a need to have two separate timers
and, additionally, a baud rate generator. In such case real Timer 1 can
be used as a baud rate generator and TH0/TL0 can be used as two
separate timers.

Another register used for the timers control is TCON register.

TCON SFR and its individual bits

It is worth noting here that only upper 4 bits are related to timers
operation while the other 4 bits of this register are related to interrupts
and will be explained in the handout related to this topic. Therefore.
Only the upper 4 bits of this register are listed and explained in the
table below. TCON is a bit-addressable register; hence an extra
column in the table has been added.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Bit

Name

Bit Address

Explanation of Function

TF1

8Fh

Timer 1 Overflow flag

TR1

8Eh

Timer 1 Run

TF0

8Dh

Timer 0 Overflow flag

TR0

8Ch

Timer 0 Run

Overflow flags TF1 and TF0 are set by the corresponding timers when
they overflow. Timer Run bits are used by the program to turn the timer
on (when this bit is set to 1) or off (when the bit is cleared).
The benefit of bit-addressability of this register is now clear. This has
the advantage of setting the high bit of TCON without changing the
value of any of the other bits of the SFR. To start or stop a timer no
modification of any other value in TCON is necessary.

Once the modes of the operation of the timers are clear and functions
of the individual bits of timer initialising registers are known, writing
programs to use timers is an easy task.

Timer Delay and Timer Reload Value

Timer Delay = Delay Value Timer Clock Cycle Duration

Delay Value = how many counts before timer overflows , i.e.

Delay Value = Maximum Register Count - Timer Reload Value

Timer Clock Cycle Duration =

number of crystal pulses per machine cycle

crystal frequency

6 for P89C664 model

number of crystal pulses per machine cycle =
8 for basic 80C51 model

65536 for mode 1

Maximum Register Count =
256 for mode 2

Timer Reload Value = ???

Procedure of calculating the reload values for timers in order to achieve

specific timing delays is summarised in the next paragraph and a
number of simple examples using timers for timing or counting external
events is also given on the next few pages.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Example 1

Example 2

Calculation of Timer 0 reload value needed to achieve timer delay of 20

ms. Oscillator frequency is 11.0592 MHz.

Function to generate 100 s delay using timer 0.

Delay Value

= Timer Delay / Timer Clock Cycle Duration

=

20 10 3
6
11.0592 10 6

Procedure is:

= 36864 (must be rounded to the nearest integer)

Initialise TMOD register

Initialise TL0 and TH0
Start the Timer
Monitor TF0 until it is set

Delay:

MOV

TMOD,#01H

; initialise

MOV
MOV
SETB

TL0,#47H
TL0,#FFH
TR0

; initialise TL0
; initialise TH0
; start timer

JNB
CLR
CLR
RET

TF0,Wait
TR0
TF0

; wait for TF0

; stop timer
; clear TF0

TMOD
Timer Reload Value

= Maximum Register Count - Delay Value

= 65535 36864
= 28671
= 0x6FFF

Wait:

so Timer 0 is loaded with:

TH0 = 0x6F;
TL0 = 0xFF;

Delay Value

100 10 3
= 184
6
11.0592 10 6

Timer Reload Value

= 65535 184 = 65351 = 0xFF47

so Timer 0 is loaded with:

TH0 = 0x6F;

TL0 = 0xFF;

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

// TH0TL0 = 16 bit register

Example 3

while(1)
// keep repeating the following section
{
pin7 = on;
// pin 7 to 5 volts, i.e. logic 1

C version of the function from Example 2.

void Delay(void)
{
TMOD = 0x01;
TL0 = 0x47;
TH0 = 0xFF;
TR0 = 1;
while(!TF0);
TR0 = 0;
TF0 = 0;
}

// use timer 0 to generate delay

TH0 = 0x6F; // hex 6F into TH0
TL0 = 0xFF; // hex FF into TL0
TR0 = on;
// start timer
while(!TF0);
// wait here until TF0 = 1
TR0 = off; // stop timer
TF0 = off; // clear overflow flag

pin7 = off;
// pin 7 to 0 v0lts, i.e. logic 0

Example 4

// repeat timer delay

TH0 = 0x6F; // hex 6F into TH0
TL0 = 0xFF; // hex FF into TL0
TR0 = on;
// start timer
while(!TF0);
// wait here until TF0 = 1
TR0 = off; // stop timer
TF0 = off; // clear overflow flag

Program to toggle pin 7 on Port 1 with a time delay of 20 ms.

#include <reg66x.h>
#define off 0
#define on 1
}
sbit pin7 = P1^7; // label pin7 is port 1 pin

7
main()
{
TMOD = 0x01;
// timer 0 mode 1,

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Alternative Technique for Timers Loading

Example 6

Example 5

C program to generate 1 kHz square wave from figure below. Square

wave should be generated on pin 7 of port 1. Functions are used to
generate two delays needed in the program. (delay = 200 s)

Load the timer 0 in order to produce 1 kHz square wave (i.e. cycle time
of 1000 s and delay time 500 s). Oscillator frequency is 11.0592
MHz.

Delay Value =

500 10 6
= 922
6
11.0592 10 6

Timer Reload Value

ON

OFF

4 x delay

delay

= 65535 922 = 64614 = 0xFC66

so Timer 0 is loaded with:

TH0 = 0xFC; TL0 = 0x66

Alternatively if we use:

TH0 = ~(922/256);

// header file containing SFR adresses

#include<reg66x.h>
// to make program more readable:

result of integer division 922/256 = 3 will be byte complemented to

0xFC and stored in TH0

Second line to fill up lower timer 0 register:

TL0 = -(922%256)

will negate reminder of division 922/256 and store the result in TL0
i.e.

// define ON and OFF states

#define on 1
#define off 0
// give a name to output pin
sbit pwm = P1^7;
// long and short delay functions
void delay_on();
void delay_off();

922%256 = 154
-(922%256) = 256-154 = 102 = 0x66

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

main()
{
TMOD = 0x01;
// initialise TMOD for Timer 0 in mode 1
while(1)
// repeat this
{
pwm = on;
// output
delay_on();
// 800 us
pwm = off;
// output
delay_off(); // 200 us
}

pin high
delay
pin low
delay

}
// 800 us delay function
void delay_on()
{
// loading Timer 0 for longer delay
TH0 = ~(1475/256);
TL0 = -(1475%256);
TR0 = on;
// turn the Timer 0 ON
while(!TF0); // wait for timer overflow
TR0 = off;
// switch the Timer 0 off
TF0 = off;
// clear the overflow flag
}
// 200 us delay function
void delay_off()
{
// loading Timer 0 for shorter delay
TH0 = ~(369/256);
TL0 = -(369%256);
TR0 = on;
while(!TF0);
TR0 = off;
TF0 = off;
}

10

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

University of Portsmouth
Faculty of Technology
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering
Content
Module:
Module Code:
Module Topic:
Lecturer:

Principles of Digital Systems

B122L
Microcontroller Applications
Branislav Vuksanovic

Lecture Notes:

Interrupts .............................................................................. 2
Interrupt Events .................................................................... 2
Enabling Interrupts ............................................................... 3
Interrupt Priorities ................................................................. 3
Interrupt Handling ................................................................ 4
Timer Interrupts .................................................................... 5
External Interrupts ................................................................ 5
Serial Interrupts .................................................................... 5
Example 1 Timer Interrupt................................................. 6
Example 2 External Interrupt............................................. 6

Interrupts on 8051

The purpose of this handout is to explain how to handle interrupts on

the 8051 series of microcontrollers.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Interrupts
As the name implies, an interrupt is some event which interrupts
normal program execution.
Program flow is always sequential, being altered only by those
instructions which cause program flow to deviate in some way.
However, interrupts provide a mechanism to "put on hold" the normal
program flow, execute a subroutine (interrupt service routine or interrupt
handler), and then resume normal program flow. ISR (interrupt service
routine) is only executed when a certain event (interrupt) occurs. The
event may be one of the timers "overflowing," receiving a character via
the serial port, transmitting a character via the serial port, or one of two
"external events." The 8051 may be configured so that when any of
these events occur the main program is temporarily suspended and
control passed to a special section of code which would execute some
function related to the event that occurred. Once complete, control
would be returned to the original program so that the main program
never even knows it was interrupted.
The ability to interrupt normal program execution when certain events
occur makes it much easier and much more efficient to handle certain
conditions. Without interrupts a manual check in the main program
would have to be performed to establish whether the timers had
overflown, whether another character has been received via the serial
port, or if some external event had occurred. Besides making the main
program longer and more complicated to read and understand, more
importantly, such a situation would make program inefficient since
"instruction cycles" would be spent checking for events that usually
dont happen or happen very infrequently during the program execution.
It was shown in the previous handout how timer flag needs to be
checked to detect timer overflow when generating accurate delay in the
program. This isnt necessary. Interrupts let us forget about checking for
the condition. The microcontroller itself will check for the condition
automatically and when the condition is met will jump to a subroutine
(called an interrupt handler), execute the code, then return.

Interrupt Events
The 8051 family of microcontrollers can be configured to respond to
interrupts caused by the following events:

Timer 0 Overflow
Timer 1 Overflow
Reception/Transmission of Serial Character
External Event 0
External Event 1

So when, for example Timer 0 overflows or when a character is

successfully sent or received via serial port, the appropriate interrupt
handler routines are called and executed. It is necessary to distinguish
between various interrupts and to respond to them by executing
different ISR. This is accomplished by jumping to a fixed address when
a given interrupt occurs. These addresses are usually placed at the
bottom of the memory map, in the area of memory so called interrupt
vector table (IVT).
Interrupt

Name

ISR Address

External 0

IE0

0003h

Timer 0

TF0

000Bh

External 1

IE1

0013h

Timer 1

TF1

001Bh

Serial

RI/TI

0023h

From the above IVT it can be seen that whenever Timer 0 overflows
(i.e., the TF0 bit is set), the main program will be temporarily suspended
and control will jump to 000BH. It is of course necessary to have a code
at address 000BH that handles the situation of Timer 0 overflowing.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Interrupt a bit 3 needs to be set by executing one of two instructions

written below:

Enabling Interrupts
By default at power up, all interrupts are disabled. Therefore even if, for
example, the TF0 bit is set, the 8051 will not execute the interrupt. User
program must specifically tell the 8051 that it wishes to enable
interrupts and specifically which interrupts it wishes to enable.
Enabling and disabling of the interrupts is done by modifying the IE
SFR (Interrupt Enable) (A8h):

IE SFR and its individual bits

Bit

Name

Bit Address

Explanation of Function

EA

AFh

Global Interrupt Enable/Disable.

AEh

Undefined

ADh

Undefined

ES

ACh

Enable Serial Interrupt

ET1

ABh

Enable Timer 1 Interrupt

EX1

AAh

Enable External 1 Interrupt

ET0

A9h

Enable Timer 0 Interrupt

EX0

A8h

Enable External 1 Interrupt

Each of the 8051s interrupts has its own bit in the IE SFR. To enable a
given interrupt a corresponding bit needs to be set. To enable Timer 1

IE = 0x08;

or

ET1 = 1;

Once Timer 1 Interrupt is enabled, whenever the TF1 bit is set, the
8051 will automatically put "on hold" the main program and execute the
Timer 1 Interrupt Handler at address 001Bh.
However, before Timer 1 Interrupt (or any other interrupt) is truly
enabled, bit 7 of IE must also be set. Bit 7, the Global Interrupt
Enable/Disable, enables or disables all interrupts simultaneously. If bit 7
is cleared then no interrupts will occur, even if all the other bits of IE are
set. Setting bit 7 will enable all the interrupts that have been selected by
setting other bits in IE. This is useful in program executing time-critical
code where it might be needed to execute code from start to finish
without any interrupt getting in the way. To accomplish this bit 7 of IE
can simply be cleared (EA = 0;) and then set after the time-critical code
is done. So to fully enable the Timer 1 Interrupt the most common
approach is to execute the following two instructions:
ET1 = 1;
EA = 1;
Alternatively, instruction:
IE = 0x88;
will have the same effect.
Thereafter, the Timer 1 Interrupt Handler at 01Bh will automatically be
called whenever the TF1 bit is set (upon Timer 1 overflow).

Interrupt Priorities
When checking for interrupt conditions, 8051 always checks according
to predetermined sequence:

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

External 0 Interrupt
Timer 0 Interrupt
External 1 Interrupt
Timer 1 Interrupt
Serial Interrupt

This also means that if a Serial Interrupt occurs at the exact same
instant that an External 0 Interrupt occurs, the External 0 Interrupt will
be serviced first and the Serial Interrupt will be serviced once the
External 0 Interrupt has completed.
This priority order in servicing the interrupts on 8051 can be altered.
Custom defined priority order offers two levels of interrupt priority: high
and low.
If Timer 1 and Serial Interrupt are enabled in the program Timer 1
Interrupt will have a higher priority than the Serial Interrupt, i.e. if two
interrupts occur at the same time Timer 1 Interrupt will be serviced first.
To change this high priority can be assigned to a Serial Interrupt and
low priority to a Timer 1 Interrupt. In this interrupt priority scheme, even
if Timer 1 Interrupt is already executing the serial interrupt itself can
interrupt the Timer 1 Interrupt. When the serial interrupt ISR is
complete, control passes back to Timer 1 Interrupt and finally back to
the main program.
Interrupt priorities are controlled by the IP SFR (B8h).

IP SFR and its individual bits

Interrupt can be assigned high priority by setting the corresponding bit
in this register. Leaving the bit clear, interrupt is assigned the low
priority.

Bit

Name

Bit Address

Explanation of Function

Undefined

Undefined

Undefined

PS

BCh

Serial Interrupt Priority

PT1

BBh

Timer 1 Interrupt Priority

PX1

BAh

External 1 Interrupt Priority

PT0

B9h

Timer 0 Interrupt Priority

PX0

B8h

External 1 Interrupt Priority

When considering interrupt priorities, the following rules apply:

- Nothing can interrupt a high-priority interrupt-not even another high
priority interrupt.
- A high-priority interrupt may interrupt a low-priority interrupt.
- A low-priority interrupt may only occur if no other interrupt is already
executing.
- If two interrupts occur at the same time, the interrupt with higher
priority will execute first. If both interrupts are of the same priority the
interrupt which is serviced first by polling sequence will be executed
first.

Interrupt Handling
When an interrupt is triggered, the following actions are taken
automatically by the microcontroller:

instruction currently being executed is finished

the current content of the Program Counter is stored

on the stack, low byte first

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

in the case of Timer and External interrupts, the

corresponding interrupt flag is cleared.
ISR address is fetched from IVT (interrupt vector
table) and copied over into the Program Counter
corresponding ISR is executed until the RETI
instruction (Return from Interrupt instruction)

An interrupt ends when your program executes the RETI (Return from
Interrupt) instruction. When the RETI instruction is executed the
following actions are taken by the microcontroller:

two bytes are popped off the stack into the Program
Counter to restore normal program execution.

interrupt status is restored to its pre-interrupt status.

Timer Interrupts
Timer interrupts occur as a result of Timer 0 or Timer 1 overflow. This
sets the corresponding timer flag in TCON register. Flag is cleared
automatically by the hardware, so there is no need for the flag clearing
instruction in the ISR.

Last two unexplained bits of TCON SFR are interrupt flags IE1 and IE0.
Similarly to timer flags those two flags are set when corresponding
external interrupt occurs. They are cleared by hardware when the CPU
vectors to the ISR if the interrupt is transition-activated. If the interrupt is
level activated, then IEx flag has to be cleared by the user software

Serial Interrupts
Serial Interrupts are slightly different than the rest of the interrupts. This
is due to the fact that there are two interrupt flags: RI and TI (bits 0 and
1 from SCON register). If either flag is set, a serial interrupt is triggered.
RI bit is set when a byte is received by the serial port and the TI bit is
set when a byte has been sent. This means that when serial interrupt
occurs, it may have been triggered because the RI flag was set or
because the TI flag was set-or because both flags were set. Thus,
interrupt routine must check the status of these flags to determine what
action is appropriate. Also, since the 8051 does not automatically clear
the RI and TI flags ISR must clear these bits.

External Interrupts
There is one not so obvious detail, which requires an additional
explanation, and it concerns the external interrupts. Namely, if bits IT0
and IT1 (in register TCON) are set, program will be interrupted on
change of logic on interrupt pins (P3.2 for External Interrupt 0 and P3.3
for External Interrupt 1) from 1 to 0, i.e. on falling edge of the impulse. If
these two bits are cleared, same signal will trigger an interrupt, but in
this case it will be continually executed as long as the state on interrupt
pins is low.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Example 1 Timer Interrupt

Example 2 External Interrupt

#include <reg66x.h>

#include <reg66x.h>

sbit pin7 = P1^7;

sbit pin7 = P1^7;

sbit pin6 = P1^6;

void something() interrupt 1 using 2

{
pin7 = ~pin7;
// complement pin 7
}
main()
{
while(1)
{
TMOD = 0x02;
// put timer 0
TL0 = -184;
TH0 = -184; //
TR0 = 1;
//
EA = 1;
//
ET0 = 1;
//
for(;;);
//
}
}

void something() interrupt 2 using 2

{
unsigned int j;
for(j = 1; j <= 10; j++)
// delay
pin7 = ~pin7;
// complement pin 7
}
main()
{

in mode 2

EA = 1;
EX1 = 1;
IT1 = 1;

reload value
start timer 0
global INT enable
timer 0 INT enable
wait for INT

//
//
//
//

global interrupt enable

enable P3.3 active low INT
= 0 level triggered;
= 1 edge triggered

while(1)
{
unsigned int j;
for(j = 1; j <=10; j++)
pin6 = ~pin6;
}
}

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

University of Portsmouth
Faculty of Technology
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering
Content
Module:
Module Code:
Module Topic:
Lecturer:

Principles of Digital Systems

B122L
Microcontroller Applications
Branislav Vuksanovic

Setting the Serial Port Mode ......................................................... 2

Setting the Serial Port Baud Rate ................................................. 3
Writing to the Serial Port ............................................................... 4
Reading the Serial Port ................................................................. 5
Example ........................................................................................ 5

Lecture Notes:

Serial Port Operation on 8051

Serial communication is often used either to control or to receive data

from an embedded microprocessor. Serial communication is a form of
I/O in which the bits of a byte begin transferred appear one after the
other in a timed sequence on a single wire. Serial communication has
become the standard for intercomputer communication. In this handout
the operation of the serial port on the 8051 series of microcontroller is
explained.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

One of the 8051s features is its integrated UART, otherwise known as

a serial port. It is very easy way to read and write values to the serial
port. If it were not for the integrated serial port, writing a byte to a serial
line would be a rather tedious process requiring turning on and off one
of the I/O lines in rapid succession to properly "clock out" each
individual bit, including start bits, stop bits, and parity bits.
However, on 8051 this is not necessary. Instead, what is needed is to
configure the serial ports operation mode and baud rate. Once this is
configured, writing to an appropriate SFR will write a value to the serial
port or reading the same SFR will read a value from the serial port. The
8051 will automatically signal when it has finished sending the
character written to its SFR and will also signal when it has received a
byte so that the program can process it further. Programmer does not
have to worry about transmission at the bit level, which saves, quite a
bit of coding and processing time.

Bit

Name

Explanation of Function

SM0

Serial port mode bit 0

SM1

Serial port mode bit 1. Explained later.

SM2

Mutliprocessor Communications Enable

REN

Receiver Enable. This bit must be set in order

to receive characters.

TB8

Transmit bit 8. The 9th bit to transmit in mode

2 and 3.

RB8

Receive bit 8. The 9th bit received in mode 2

and 3.

TI

Transmit Flag. Set when a byte has been

completely transmitted.

RI

Receive Flag. Set when a byte has been

completely received.

Setting the Serial Port Mode

The first thing to do when using the 8051s integrated serial port is to
configure it. This informs the 8051 of how many data bits are to be
transmitted or received, the baud rate to be used, and how the baud
rate will be determined. Serial Control Register (SCON) is the SFR
used for this configuration. Bits of this register are listed and their
functions explained in the tablebelow.

Additionally, it is necessary to define the function of SM0 and SM1 by

an additional table:
SM0

SM1

Serial Mode

Explanation

Baud Rate

8-bit Shift Register

Oscillator / 12

8-bit UART

Set by Timer 1 (*)

9-bit UART

Oscillator / 32 (*)

9-bit UART

Set by Timer 1 (*)

Note: The baud rate indicated in this table is doubled if PCON.7 (SMOD) is set.

SCON SFR and its individual bits

The first four bits (bits 4 through 7) are configuration bits.

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Bits SM0 and SM1 set the serial mode to a value between 0 and 3,
inclusive. The four modes are defined in the chart immediately above.
Selecting the Serial Mode selects the mode of operation (8-bit/9-bit,
UART or Shift Register) and also determines how the baud rate will be
calculated. In modes 0 and 2 the baud rate is fixed based on the
oscillators frequency. In modes 1 and 3 the baud rate is variable based
on how often Timer 1 overflows.
The next bit, SM2, is a flag for "Multiprocessor communication".
Generally, whenever a byte has been received the 8051 will set the "RI"
(Receive Interrupt) flag. This lets the program know that a byte has
been received and that it needs to be processed. However, when SM2
is set the "RI" flag will only be triggered if the 9th bit received was a "1".
That is to say, if SM2 is set and a byte is received whose 9th bit is
clear, the RI flag will never be set. This can be useful in certain
advanced serial applications. For our applications it is safe to say that
this bit needs to be cleared so that the flag is set upon reception of any
character.
The next bit, REN, is "Receiver Enable." This bit is very straightforward:
To receive data via the serial port, this bit needs to be set.
The last four bits (bits 0 through 3) are operational bits. They are used
when actually sending and receiving data, i.e. they are not used to
configure the serial port.
The TB8 bit is used in modes 2 and 3. In modes 2 and 3, a total of nine
data bits are transmitted. The first 8 data bits are the 8 bits of the main
value, and the ninth bit is taken from TB8. If TB8 is set and a value is
written to the serial port, the datas bits will be written to the serial line
followed by a "set" ninth bit. If TB8 is clear the ninth bit will be "clear."
The RB8 also operates in modes 2 and 3 and functions essentially the
same way as TB8, but on the reception side. When a byte is received in
modes 2 or 3, a total of nine bits are received. In this case, the first
eight bits received are the data of the serial byte received and the value
of the ninth bit received will be placed in RB8.

TI means "Transmit Interrupt." When a program writes a value to the

serial port, a certain amount of time will pass before the individual bits
of the byte are "clocked out" the serial port. If the program were to write
another byte to the serial port before the first byte was completely
output, the data being sent would be overwritten and therefore lost for
transmission. Thus, the 8051 lets the program know that it has "clocked
out" the last byte by setting the TI bit. When the TI bit is set, the
program may assume that the serial port is "free" and ready to send the
next byte.
Finally, the RI bit means "Receive Interrupt." It functions similarly to the
"TI" bit, but it indicates that a byte has been received. Whenever the
8051 has received a complete byte it will trigger the RI bit to let the
program know that it needs to read the value quickly, before another
byte is read.

Setting the Serial Port Baud Rate

Once the Serial Port Mode has been configured, as explained above,
the program must configure the serial ports baud rate. This only applies
to Serial Port modes 1 and 3. The Baud Rate is determined based on
the oscillators frequency when in mode 0 and 2. In mode 0, the baud
rate is always the oscillator frequency divided by 12. This means if the
crystal is 11.059Mhz, mode 0 baud rate will always be 921,583 baud. In
mode 2 the baud rate is always the oscillator frequency divided by 64,
so a 11.059Mhz crystal speed will yield a baud rate of 172,797. In
modes 1 and 3, the baud rate is determined by how frequently timer 1
overflows. The more frequently timer 1 overflows, the higher the baud
rate. There are many ways to set timer 1 to overflow at a rate that
determines a baud rate, but the most common method is to put timer 1
in 8-bit auto-reload mode (timer mode 2) and set a reload value (TH1)
that causes Timer 1 to overflow at a frequency appropriate to generate
a baud rate. To determine the value that must be placed in TH1 to
generate a given baud rate, we may use the following equation
(assuming PCON.7 is clear).

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

Crystall
TH 1 = 256 192
Baud
110590
= 256 192
19200
57699
= 256
19200
= 256 3
= 253

Crystall
TH 1 = 256 384
Baud

If PCON.7 is set then the baud rate is effectively doubled, thus the
equation becomes:
Crystall
TH 1 = 256 192
Baud

For example, if we have an 11.059Mhz crystal and we want to configure

the serial port to 19,200 baud we try plugging it in the first equation:
Crystall
TH 1 = 256 384
Baud
110590
= 256 384
19200
28799
= 256
19200
= 256 1.5
= 254.5

Since, timer register TH1 can only be loaded with integer number, if it is
set to 254 achieved baud rate is 14,400 and if it is set to 255 achieved
baud is 28,800. To achieve exactly 19,200 baud PCON.7 (SMOD) bit
needs to be set. This will double the baud rate and utilize the second
equation mentioned above:

The calculation results in an integer reload value for TH1. To obtain

19,200 baud with an 11.059MHz crystal we must therefore:
1) Configure Serial Port mode 1 or 3.
2) Configure Timer 1 to timer mode 2 (8-bit autoreload).
3) Set TH1 to 253 to reflect the correct frequency for 19,200 baud.
4) Set PCON.7 (SMOD) to double the baud rate.

Writing to the Serial Port

Once the Serial Port has been properly configured as explained above,
the serial port is ready to be used to send data and receive data. To
write a byte to the serial port one must simply write the value to the
SBUF (99h) SFR. Line of C code to send the letter "A" to the serial port
is: it could be accomplished as easily as:
SBUF = A;
Upon execution of the above instruction the 8051 will begin transmitting
the character via the serial port. Obviously transmission is not
instantaneous - it takes a measurable amount of time to transmit. And
since the 8051 does not have a serial output buffer we need to be sure
that a character is completely transmitted before we try to transmit the
next character. The 8051 indicates when it is done transmitting a
character by setting the TI bit in SCON. When this bit is set the

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

character has been transmitted and the next character can be send as
well. Consider the following code segment:
SBUF = A; // write char to SBUF
while(!TI); // wait until done
TI = 0;
// clear interrupt flag
The above three instructions will successfully transmit a character and
wait for the TI bit to be set before continuing. The program will pause on
the while(!TI) instruction until the TI bit is set by the 8051 upon
successful transmission of the character.

Reading the Serial Port

To read a byte from the serial port the value stored in the SBUF (99h)
SFR needs to be read after the 8051 has automatically set the RI flag in
SCON. For example, if the program wants to wait for a character to be
received and subsequently read it into the a program variable, the
following code segment may be used:

Example
Following two programs can be used to establish serial communication
between two 8051 microcontrollers. First program sends the message,
6 characters long to another 8051 while second program, to be run on
another 8051 can receive message of the same length.
/* program to send a message, 6 characters
long, to another 8051 via serial channel */
#include <reg66x.h>
char message[6] = {'H','e','l','p',' ','!'};
int letter;
main()
{
/* initialise serial channel 0 */
S0CON = 0x40;
/* UART mode 1 */
TMOD = 0x20;
/* timer mode 2 */
TCON = 0x40;
/* start the timer */
TH1
= 0xE6;
/* 1200 baud @ 12 MHz */

while(!RI); // wait for 8051 to set the flag

C = SBUF;
// read the character from the port
RI = 0;
The first line of the above code segment waits for the 8051 to set the RI
flag; again, the 8051 sets the RI flag automatically when it receives a
character via the serial port. So as long as the bit is not set the program
waits on the "while(!RI)" instruction. Once the RI bit is set upon
character reception the above condition automatically fails and program
flow falls through to the next line to read the value received via serial
port. Last line of the code segment clears the flag for the next reading
of the port.

/* transmit routine */
for (letter=0;letter<6;letter++)
{
S0BUF = message[letter];
while (!TI0);
TI0 = 0;
}
/* afterwards wait in endless loop */
while(1);
}

University of Portsmouth, Faculty of Technology, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering

B122L Principles of Digital Systems

/* program to receive a message, 6 characters

long, from another 8051 via serial channel */
#include <reg517.h>
/* reserve space for the message */
char message[6];
int letter;
main()
{
/* initialise serial channel 0 */
S0CON = 0x52;
/* UART mode 1, receive enabled */
TMOD = 0x20;
/* timer mode 2 */
TCON = 0x40;
/* start the timer */
TH1
= 0xE6;
/* 1200 baud @ 12 MHz */
/* receive routine */
for (letter=0;letter<6;letter++)
{
while (!RI0);
message[letter] = S0BUF;
RI0 = 0;
}
/* afterwards wait in endless loop */
while(1);/* then wait in endless loop */
}