Intel 8051 Microcontroller Architecture and Features
The Intel 8051 is an 8-bit microcontroller, meaning most available operations are limited to 8 bits. There are three basic "sizes" of the 8051: Short, Standard, and Extended. The Short and Standard chips are often available in DIP (Dual In-line Package) form, but the Extended 8051 models often have a different form factor and are not "drop-in compatible."
Key Features of the Intel 8051
- 4 KB on-chip program memory.
- 128 bytes on-chip data memory (RAM).
- 32 bytes devoted to register banks.
- 16 bytes of bit-addressable memory.
- 80 bytes of general-purpose memory.
- Four register banks.
- 128 user-defined software flags.
- 8-bit data bus.
- 16-bit address bus.
- 16-bit timers (usually 2, but may have more or less).
- 3 internal and 2 external interrupts.
- Bit as well as byte-