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Introduction

The Crossware 8051 Virtual Workshop is a simulator for the 8051 microcontroller.  Not only does it simulate the 8051 microcontroller and an increasing range of variants, it also allows you to add your own extensions and so simulate your complete target system.

The simulator understands the instruction set of the 8051 and steps through the program performing each instruction as if it were an 8051 chip.

The program memory, internal ram, external ram and special function registers are maintained by the simulator and the user can readily view and modify these by opening the appropriate windows.

The user can single step or trace through the program at the source code or machine code level observing the program flow, memory and register changes, etc.  The program can be run non-stop or until a breakpoint is reached.

Breakpoints can be set to halt execution at specific program memory addresses or when the 8051 program accesses specified locations in program memory or internal or external ram.  Breakpoints can also be set to halt execution if the stack pointer goes outside of a specified range.

8051 and 8052 interrupts, timers and the serial port are all simulated with cycle accurate precision.

For many 8051 variants, the Virtual Workshop is automatically extended so that it simulates many of the peripherals of the variant chip.

The 8051 Virtual Workshop is part of the Crossware 8051 Development Suite.