SECTION 2.5: 8051 DATA TYPES AND DIRECTIVES
In this section we look at some widely used data types and directives supported by the 8051 assembler.
8051 data type and directives
The 8051 microcontroller has only one data type. It is 8 bits, and the size of each register is also 8 bits. It is the job of the programmer to break down data larger than 8 bits (00 to FFH, or 0 to 255 in decimal) to be processed by the CPU. For examples of how to process data larger than 8 bits, see Chapter 6. The data types used by the 8051 can be positive or negative. A discussion of signed numbers is given in Chapter 6.
DB (define byte)
The DB directive is the most widely used data directive in the assembler. It is used to define the 8-bit data. When DB is used to define data, the numbers can be in decimal, binary, hex, or ASCII formats. For decimal, the “D” after the decimal number is optional, but using “B” (binary) and “H” (hexadecimal) for the others is required. Regardless of which is used, the assembler will convert the numbers into hex. To indicate ASCII, simply place the characters in quotation marks (‘like this’). The assembler will assign the ASCII code for the numbers or characters automatically. The DB directive is the only directive that can be used to define ASCII strings larger than two characters; therefore, it should be used for all ASCII data definitions. Following are some DB examples:
Either single or double quotes can be used around ASCII strings. This can be useful for strings, which contain a single quote such as “O’Leary”. DB is also used to allocate memory in byte-sized chunks.
Assembler directives
The following are some more widely used directives of the 8051.
ORG (origin)
The ORG directive is used to indicate the beginning of the address. The number that comes after ORG can be either in hex or in decimal. If the number is not followed by H, it is decimal and the assembler will convert it to hex. Some assemblers use “. ORG” (notice the dot) instead of “ORG” for the origin directive. Check your assembler.
EQU (equate)
This is used to define a constant without occupying a memory location. The EQU directive does not set aside storage for a data item but associates a constant value with a data label so that when the label appears in the program, itp constant value will be substituted for the label. The following uses EQU for the counter constant and then the constant is used to load the R3 register.
When executing the instruction “MOV R3, ttCOUNT”, the register R3 will be loaded with the value 25 (notice the # sign). What is the advantage of using EQU? Assume that there is a constant (a fixed value) used in many different places in the program, and the programmer wants to change its value throughout. By the use of EQU, the programmer can change it once and the assembler will change* all of its occurrences, rather than search the entire program trying to find every occurrence.
END directive
Another important pseudocode is the END directive. This indicates to the assembler the end of the source (asm) file. The END directive is the last line of an 8051 program, meaning that in the source code anything after the END directive is ignored by the assembler. Some assemblers use “. END” (notice the dot) instead
of “END”.
Rules for labels in Assembly language
By choosing label names that are meaningful, a programmer can make a program much easier to read and maintain. There are several rules that names must follow. First, each label name must be unique. The names used for labels in Assembly language programming consist of alphabetic letters in both uppercase and lowercase, the digits 0 through 9, and the special characters question mark (?), period (.), at (@), underline (_), and dollar sign ($). The first character of the label must be an alphabetic character. In other words it cannot be a number. Every assembler has some reserved words that must not be used as labels in the program. Foremost among the reserved words are the mnemonics for the instructions. For example, “MOV” and “ADD” are reserved since they are instruction mnemonics. In addition to the mnemonics there are some other reserved words. Check your assembler for the list of reserved words.
