Re: Beginner Q: Starting out in embedded systems dev

From: Lewin A.R.W. Edwards (larwe_at_larwe.com)
Date: 05/26/04 

Date: 25 May 2004 20:49:03 -0700

> >But going back to the first point.. you cant go wrong with an 8051...
> >actually you can. lots. but it is a good place to start which is why
>
> Just what is this love affair with the 8051 all about? Apart of course your
> commercial interest. This processor is 30 years old, it has a primitive

Chris and I don't see eye-to-eye on quite a few things, but we argue
quite cordially :) His [other] schtick is, in a nutshell, that the '51
is so widespread that it's a good learning platform because (a)
there's tons of IP out there waiting to be reused, and (b) it's a good
bullet point on the resume.

To which I would add (c) if you can program the '51 skilfully, you
won't have trouble programming an elegant architecture, much like a
driver trained on a Yugo won't have much trouble driving a Bentley.

I don't regret the time I spent learning how to program this platform.
Among other things, there are a _load_ of ASSPs that use a 51 to do
the grunt bit-shuffling work, transferring data into and out of
special-purpose hardware on the chip (crypto, A/V codec, etc). Used to
be that it was the price king, and I guess as a soft core it still is.

(My potential new employer uses '51s and - ARGH! - COPs, but -
amazingly - is migrating some applications to AVR and is dabbling in
MSP430, too! I am so happy! Ulf, are you reading this?).