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55CHAPTER TWO

Microcontroller Concepts

Indexed addressing (e.g. MOVC A,@A+DPTR) is a combination of direct and register indirect addressing, because the instruction includes an offset address (DPTR), which is added to an index register (A register) to determine the address of the data to transfer.

It should be noted that the nomenclature for the various address modes varies, and the 8051 family address modes used for the examples above are not necessarily the best examples, as other processors support more extensive and flexible address modes.

The Software Development Cycle

The standard software development process consists of the following steps:

1)Create or edit an ASCII text file containing the human readable source code, also known as the program instructions.

2)Translate the source code to machine-readable binary instruction code using a language translator. This is accomplished using an assembler or compiler.

3)Load the program memory with the binary instruction code into the processor’s program memory chip. For the SDK, the program is downloaded into program memory on the SDK.

4)Execute the program to test it and find program errors. For the SDK, this “debugging” process is facilitated using a special program (debugger or monitor) resident on the SDK.

5)Once the problem is located, the source code is corrected by repeating this process until all errors are corrected.

Software Development Tools

Software tools include translators, like assemblers and compilers, and debugging tools. Active debugging tools include:

•In-circuit emulators (ICE) for HW/SW integration; these are plugged into the application circuit (the “target” system) in place of the CPU, allowing the designer to “see inside” the microcontroller, download, and execute programs selectively.

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Hardware Design

•ROM emulators (ROM ICE) that allow the designer to reduce the time it takes to edit-compile-load-debug programs by replacing the program EPROM with a RAM that can be loaded quickly and easily from the host computer.

•Simple tools, such as an LED or speaker can also be useful in debugging.

Hardware Development Tools

There are two general classes of hardware development tools available to the embedded developer: passive analysis tools that allow looking at the operation of the system, and active tools. Active tools allow the designer to intrude on the operation of the system while it’s running, even making changes to the system’s configuration and software while it is under test. The system under test is usually referred to as the “target” system, and the computer that is used to develop, edit, compile, assemble, and download the code to the target system is called the “host” system.

Hardware tools include logic probes to display static logic levels and detect pulses, oscilloscopes to look at signal waveform amplitude vs. time, logic analyzers (with processor specific probes), and PROM programmers.

Chapter Two Problems

1.Processors such as the 8031 use multiplexed address/data buses. They require more than one clock cycle to do a memory transfer because some or all of the bus lines are shared. 16-bit addresses alternate with 8-bit data. The ALE (address latch enable) signal indicates when address information (A0-7) is present on the multiplexed address/data bus. The ALE signal is used to latch the least significant eight bits of the address in an 8-bit register. A minimum of two clock cycles is required to transfer data: one for latching the address when ALE is high, and one for the actual data transfer. How many clock cycles (minimum) would be required if the processor was a 16-bit machine doing a 16-bit transfer? Would the address latch have to be different?

2.How many unique locations could be referenced as “address zero” in the 8031 CPU architecture? (Remember to consider all the address spaces!)

3.Most processor control lines are active low. Comment on the reasons for this.

Worst-Case Timing, Loading,

Analysis, and Design

Just as in comedy, timing is essential to the success of a microcomputer design. Often it is quite possible to get one system functioning by just interconnecting the various components. But it is significantly more difficult to be able to guarantee that many systems will work under the entire range of possible conditions that they may be exposed to. There are many designs in production right now that have a number of unidentified failures due to the lack of a worst-case analysis of the design. When timing or loading problems show up in a design, they usually appear as intermittent failures or as sensitivity to power supply fluctuations, temperature changes, and so on.

A worst-case design takes into account all available information regarding the components to be used with respect to variations in performance. Even when all parameters are at their most adverse values, the worst-case design can still be proved to meet the specifications. These variants may be due to changing manufacturing conditions, temperature, voltage, and other variables. Without performing a detailed analysis, there is no way of knowing if the design will work reliably under all operating conditions. It is much better to design reliability and simplicity of manufacturing into a product using worst-case design rules than to attempt to correct a problem after the design has been implemented. With the emphasis that must be given to the quality of the final product, a designer is obligated to perform a detailed examination of the timing in a system. As is the case in most quality improvements, these efforts result in direct cost and saving time. This is clearly one of the places where the designer can have the greatest impact on overall product quality.

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Hardware Design

Timing Diagram Notation Conventions

Timing notation is illustrated in Figure 3-1. The timing notation used in manufacturers’ data sheets may vary from this, but is usually very similar. It is also important to notice that while the diagrams are reasonably standard, there is a wide variation in the selection of symbols for each timing parameter.

The purpose of timing analysis is to determine the sequence of events in each of the bus cycles so that we can delimit, among other things, the time available for each of the components to respond to changes. This time is compared to the requirements as specified in the manufacturers’ data sheets to determine if they are compatible, and by what margin.

Figure 3-1: Timing diagram notation as used in this book.

The most important timing specifications for interfacing components to a bus-oriented design are:

•Rise/fall time

•Propagation delay time

•Setup time

•Hold time

•Tri-state enable and disable delays

•Pulse width

•Clock frequency

There are two general classes of logic: combinatorial and sequential. Combinatorial logic has no memory and its output is some logical function of its current

59CHAPTER THREE

Worst-Case Timing, Loading, Analysis, and Design

inputs, after some delay. Examples of combinatorial logic include gates, buffers, inverters, multiplexers, and decoders. Sequential logic has memory, which means that its outputs are a function of both current and past inputs. Examples of sequential logic are flip-flops, registers, microprocessors, and counters. There are two types of sequential logic. Synchronous logic is synchronized to change only when there is a clock transition. In contrast, asynchronous logic does not use a clock signal. Almost all of the logic used in a microcomputer design will either be un-clocked asynchronous logic (gates, decoders) or clocked synchronous logic (counter, latch or microprocessor). Some types

of devices are available in either form. Each of the timing specifications in the following discussion is described using simple logic devices as they are typically used in embedded computer designs.

Rise and Fall Times

The rise time of a signal is usually defined as the time required for a logic signal voltage to change from 20% to 80% of its final value. The fall time is from 80% to 20%, as shown in the figure below. These times are also commonly defined by some manufacturers as the transitions between the 10% and 90% levels.

Figure 3-2 illustrates rise and fall times.

Logic One

80% of Logic One

20% of Logic One

Logic Zero

Figure 3-2: Rise and fall time of a signal.

Propagation Delays

The propagation delay is the time it takes for a change at the input of a device to cause a change at the output. All devices—even wires—exhibit some propagation delay. Some devices do not have symmetrical delays for positive and negative transitions. In the Figure 3-3, the propagation times for a high to low transition are shorter than for a low to high transition. This asymmetrical delay is common for TTL and open collector and open drain outputs because they