Why is Systronix giving away RAD51? What's the catch?
There isn't any catch. We saw the desire for a good, freeware 8051 assembler which used the 32-bit Windows environment. There are several good 8051 DOS assemblers: ours, MetaLink's, and others. We created RAD51 in the hope that it will generate goodwill and increase awareness of other Systronix products. If you really like RAD51, buy our other products or send us a check for whatever you feel is appropriate. We plan to offer extra-cost plugins for RAD51 in the future, while keeping the base product free.
How does RAD51 "project management" work?
It's a simple concept based on the premise that you want to re-use as much of your assembly code as possible. As an example, in creation of sample programs for the Systronix HSM550 development board, we put all the common assembly code: I/O drivers, serial I/O code, and so forth, in a folder called CODE. Then we created individual folders below the CODE folder for each project such as CODE/ADC for the ADC sample programs. In this case the ADC folder includes projects such as ADC_ALL.PRJ, a program which reads all the ADC channels of the 87C550 micro. The main assembly code file is also called ADC_ALL.ASM and it is located in the ADC folder. ADC_ALL.ASM uses serial I/O, and these routines are in the file CODE/550_IO.INC. These files, which are also used by other projects, are included in the main ASM file with the INCL directive. The "..\" tells RAD1 to look in the parent folder for the files.
INCL "..\dac_550.inc" INCL "..\550_io.inc"
There are many advantages to organizing your code this way. All the shared code is kept in one place and is easily maintained.
What 8051 controllers does RAD51 support?
All 8051s are supported. RAD51 includes the generic 8051 SFRs and BITs such as SBUF and ACC. Other SFRs and BITs are contained in a text file called CONTROLLER.CFG. Here's a snippet from the file:
; RAD51
Definition for Dallas DS8xC320
; SFR: SFR (Special Function Register)
; BIT: Bit name in a bit-addressable SFR
#DS80C320
P0 SFR 080H
SP SFR 081H
DPL SFR 082H
DPH SFR 083H
DPL1 SFR 084H
You can add your own controllers to the file, or download the latest version from our web site.