Click image to enlarge

CAMBRIDGE, UK, July 3, 2008, - Crossware (www.crossware.com), a leading embedded software tools developer, has enhanced its 8051 Development Suite by adding support for the C8051F9xx family of mixed signal microcontrollers from Silicon Laboratories.

The C8051F9xx is the industry’s first family of microcontrollers (MCUs) capable of operating down to 0.9 V, enabling portable devices to derive power from a single-cell battery. The novel 8-bit architecture with an integrated high-efficiency dc-dc boost converter, which can supply up to 65 mW of power for both internal MCU use and to drive other components, creates a true single-cell battery system solution.

The Crossware enhancements allow developers to rapidly exploit the advanced features of these chips by providing a combination of wizards, simulation, debugging, compiler extensions and pre-configuration. This allows the programmer to accelerate the development process and significantly reduce new product time-to-market.

Crossware’s code creation wizards are provided for all on-chip peripherals and are able to generate configuration code, interrupt routines and application code. The simulator simulates the 8051 core itself as well as many of the on-chip peripherals. This allows a developer to use the simulator to immediately test the code created using the wizards. The simulator can also be extended using the Virtual Workshop Interface allowing developers to construct a simulation of their complete target system.

Switching to on-chip debugging allows the developer to exploit the debugging capabilities integrated into the C8051F9xx chips and run programs interactively on the target hardware.

A series of video tutorials illustrate the use of the code creation wizards, simulator, virtual workshop interface and debugger using the Silicon Labs’ C8051F9xx Toolstick evaluation system as the hardware target.

One of these demonstrates the C8051F9xx’s ADC being used to read the on-chip temperature sensor with the results being transmitted to another board across the SPI interface. Another tutorial shows a timer being used to time an event. During simulation the event is generated via the Virtual Workshop interface. With the program running on the hardware, the event is generated by a real external signal.

These tutorials, which are available for viewing on the Crossware website at http://www.crossware.com/8051/tutorials/silabs/index.htm, allow the viewer to immediately appreciate the ease with which programs can be developed and tested using the 8051 Development Suite.

With its advanced C compiler, libraries, wizards, simulator and debugger, the Crossware 8051 Development Suite provides a complete and extremely user friendly development environment for the Silicon Labs’ family of microcontrollers. A Silicon Labs-specific evaluation version of the Crossware 8051 Development Suite is included on the Third Party Tools and Documentation CD supplied with the Silicon Labs MCU Development Kits.