Microcontroller Programming and Software Development
Since founding our company in 1993 we successfully develop programs for microcontroller. This assumes a
certain handling within a wide range of different peripheric components like ADC, miscellaneous bus systems
(I2C, RS232, RS485, RS422, LPT, 1Wire etc.), clock modules, interface controller and so on.
Started with the Intel 8051 we now intensively use several microcontroller. The most important of these we
want to introduce now.
8051
The family of 8051 compatible microcontrollers has a long tradition in the meantime. Nevertheless (or just
therefore) many manufacturers like AMD, Atmel und Philips develop new derivatives again and again.
As a high level language (HLL) compiler we primarily use the C51 from Keil Elektronik GmbH. Beyond it there
are very positive experiences regarding the open source compiler SDCC.
AVR
The Atmel AVR family with RISC architecture stands out because of their high execution speed at less
processor cycles and their amount of integrated peripheral equipment. Most mentionable in this case is the
ATmega series.
Here we use AVRStudio fom Atmel, alternatively the highly reliable C compiler ICC AVR from ImageCraft.
Zilog Z8 Encore
Approved reliability in a new shape: The legend Z80 has a powerful, full-featured and nevertheless
low-priced successor: the Zilog Z8 Encore! With up to 64 kByte integrated flash memory, 4 kByte SRAM, 16
bit timer, 10 bit ADC and much, much more the Encore is an all-rounder and therefore particularly suitable
for small and medium sized projects.
Our development environment for the Encore! family is the (gratis) C compiler ZDS II from Zilog.
Zilog eZ80Acclaim
The Zilog Acclaim is the new spearhead of 8 bit microcontrollers. With a core frequency of up to 50 MHz,
256 kByte internal flash memory, 16 kByte SRAM and an addressable external memory area of 16 MByte (!!) the
Acclaim meets any claim you can think of. In addition the eZ80F91 as the largest member of the Acclaim!
family contains an on-chip ethernet MAC and therefore can be used for example as web server or as device
control with an own homepage.
For the Acclaim! family we use the (gratis) C compiler ZDS II from Zilog, too.