8051 vs AVR

[pak]

Hi friends,
             I'm stating two popular architectures: 8051 (robust and industrial MCU) and AVR (new and pico power technology MCU). Which one is the best? 
             I used 8051 for 2 years ago. My primary MCU is PIC, of course. I switched to 8051 because it is a basic MCU architecture that's easier to understand and a powerful compiler like keil. I'm care about these functions over C compiler as follow:
1) delay function (delay_ms)
2) printf function (simple to float)
3) nested function routine (mixture of switch-case, for, do-while and if-else)
4) simulator for debugging purpose
5) ease of programming tool.
6) sensitivity to noise when working with AC power.
7) wide range of power supply voltage
8.) capabilities of 2 cells applications

            I tried on 8051 from ATMEL, Philip LPC and Silicon Laboratories. Among them, Silab 8051 use 1 or 2 clk cycle but they used weird crossbar and short range of power supply usually 2.7-3.6 V. Finally, I switch to AVR MCU, they have a lot of good feature like 1 or 2 clk cycle, rich of registers, ease of programming tool, and they can be used in battery-power applications since wide range of 1.8-5.5V.

                                         8051 (Silab)                                    AVR
1) delay                   need to write, reasonable                           accurate
2) printf                   best if use keil                                          resonable
3) nested function                 best                                             good
4) simulator                          best                                             best
5) ease of programming       best but expensive                             best and cheaper


        If anyone has something to suggest, please feel free to add.

thanks,
pak   

[telyadi]

in the same price range (Atmels' 8051) I prefer AVR because it faster and have many integrated peripheral (EEPROM, ADC, watchdog, etc).
As for point 1) to 4) it depends on the compiler vendors not the chip architecture.
for point 5) Atmel's S51 is simple & cheap, only use ISP.
for point 6) from experience, i found PIC > 8051 > AVR in robustness.

[pak]

thank for your comment, telyadi. I think there are three major factors for developing embedded system. 1) hardware (chip architecture), 2) software (compiler) and 3) support forum.

8051 is perfect for these three factors but debuggers are very expensive except Silab C8051xxx devices.

[hulahula]

http://www.c51c51.com/

[toml]

8051 architecture has been developed for years.  All the relative development tools are so great and easy to use. 
On the other hand, AVR runs faster than 8051 under the same clock frequency, but the debugger for AVR is not cheap.
Only a few choices you can find from market. 
I have an experience to debug an AVR program under Atma el debugger.  The debugger seems to run slowly than I expected. 

I like 8051 or other compatible 8051 architecture.
If you want to find a powerful 8051 chip for your project,  you may try Philip 8051 chips.

 

[pak]

toml, if you want me to try philip 8051 chips, yes I've already tried on lpc series with MCB900 board, unfortunately I got stuck in flashing MCU and I've lost 3 lpc936 with ISP corruption.  

I spend time on this site  http://forum.flashmagictool.com/index.php?board=4.0  for flashing MCU but not working. 
May be I don't have good luck on lpc MCU ...

thanks,
pak

[xxtigerxx]

i think that avr with the iar compiler is great for this functions.

Please take the attention to the project settings printf and scanf library otpion

no to full support.

But i think that the new 8051 chip are better in hardware (immune, ESD, EMC etc)

:-)