MONITOR 52
A software Debug Monitor for the 8051
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. USING MO52
1. INTRODUCTION
MO52 is an interactive software debugger and machine language monitor for the Intel 8051 family of microprocessors. It contains display/alter memory/register facilities, as well as a full 8051 disassembler, breakpoint, and software single step functions.
MO52 requires no hardware assist, all functions including single-step are implemented in the MO52 firmware. MO52 communicates with the user via the internal serial port of the 8051 microcontroller, although the RDCHR and WRCHR subroutines could easily be modified to support communications through an external UART device.
MO52 requires 80 bytes of external read/write memory, for its buffers and save areas, and about 3700 bytes of ROM memory for the program. If MO52 is placed in an 4K (2732 or compatable) rom, this will leave over 300 bytes of space for user I/O routines. The MO52 rom must be at the bottom of the 8051 memory map, as it has to control the 8051 interrupt vectors.
In order to be able to download and set breakpoints, MO52 must be able to WRITE to the program memory. Since this operation is not supported by the 8051 architecture when using separate CODE and DATA memory, the download area of RAM MUST BE ADDRESSED BY THE HARDWARE AS BOTH CODE AND DATA! This can be accomplished by ANDing the -PSEN and -RD signals to generate the memory select.
MO52 preserves the entire contents of registers and internal RAM when passing control back and forth to the user program. This allows the user program to operate as if it were running "standalone" without fear of conflicting with MO52. TIMER1 of the 8051 is used by MO52 both as the baud rate generator for serial communications, and as a interrupt source when single stepping. All other 8051 hardware is available to the user program.
2. USING MO52
The following commands are implemented in the monitor:
A <address>
Alter INTERNAL memory. MO52 prompts with the specified address and its current contents. You may enter TWO hex digits to change its value, SPACE to advance to the next location, BACKSPACE to backup to the previous location, or CARRIAGE RETURN to terminate the Alter command.
B <breakpoint#> <address>
Set breakpoint at specified address. Breakpoint is removed if address is 0000. There can be up to four breakpoints, which are referenced by the numbers 0-3.
If SPACE is entered instead of a breakpoint#, the currently set breakpoint addresses are displayed.
NOTE: The 8051 family of processors does not have a single byte transfer instruction such as is normally used to implement breakpoints. Breakpoints are handled by inserting 'LCALL' instructions into your code during the processing of a 'G' command and restoring the code in the breakpoint handler. Each 'LCALL' occupies three bytes of memory, which causes the following restrictions when using breakpoints:
You MUST be careful to place breakpoints in locations where there will NOT be any JUMPs or CALLs to the addresses containing the second and third bytes of the breakpoint. For example, if you set a breakpoint at address 1234, there should NOT be a label in your program occuring at address 1235 or 1236 (Note, a label at 1234 is OK).
You may not set breakpoints that are within three bytes of each other. The message 'Breakpoint conflict' results if you attempt to do so.
Attempt to 'G'o at an address containing a breakpoint will also result in the 'Breakpoint conflict' message. This will most commonly occur when you wish to resume execution following a breakpoint. In this case, you must either remove the breakpoint, or use the 'S'tep command to advance the program counter until it is NOT positioned over any part of a breakpoint (Remember, breakpoints are three bytes long).
C <register> <value>
Changes 8051 registers values. Register is a single character, which may be as follows:
A - Set Accumulator ( 8 bit value).
B - Set B register ( 8 bit value).
D - Set DPTR (16 bit value)
S - Set stack pointer ( 8 bit value).
P - Set program counter (16 bit value).
W - Set PSW ( 8 bit value)
0-7 - Set R0-R7 in current register bank (8 bit value)D <start>,<end>
Displays EXTERNAL DATA memory, in HEX/ASCII dump format, starting at the indicated address. If a SPACE is entered for <end> address, assumes FFFF.
E <address>
Edit's EXTERNAL DATA memory, Address and contents are displayed, Enter TWO hex digits to change value. Entering SPACE skips to the next location, BACKSPACE backups to the previous location. CARRIAGE RETURN terminates the edit command.
F <start>,<end> <value>
Fill's external memory from <start> to <end> with the byte <value>.
G <address>
Begins execution at the indicated address. If a SPACE is entered instead of an address, begins execution at the address in the 8051 program counter.
I <start>,<end>
Displays the contents of INTERNAL memory between the specified addresses.
L
Downloads data from the console port, which may be in either MOTOROLA or INTEL hex format.
If you accidently enter this command, you may enter either 'S9' or ':00' to signify a null download file and return to the command prompt.
R
Displays the current values of the 8051 registers (A, B, DPTR, SP, PC, PSW and R0-R7).
S
Single-Stepps one instruction from the current 8051 Program Counter address. Disassembly of the instruction stepped is displyed on the console.
U <start>,<end>
Un-assembles PROGRAM memory, starting at indicated address. If SPACE is entered for <end> address, assumes FFFF. Disassembler output contains address, opcodes bytes, nstruction neumonic, and operands to instruction.
?
Displays a short help summary of the commands.
In order to maintain the maximum amount of data on the terminal screen during the debugging session, MO52 has been designed to minimize the number of screen lines in any display. All commands which output only one line of data (such as 'B' and 'S'), will do so on the same line on which the command is issued (To the right of the command).
For commands which output larger amounts of data (such as 'D', 'U'), pressing the SPACE key during the display will halt the display on the next line. Each subsequent SPACE entered will cause one more line of data be displayed. Pressing CARRIAGE RETURN will allow the display to continue at full speed.
The escape key may be used to cancel command output, and return to the '*' prompt.
MO52 re-vectors all interrupts (except for TIMER1 OVERFLOW which is used internally for single-stepping) to the corresponding locations in the first page of user RAM.
When debugging any program which uses the interrupt vectors, simply origin it at the beginning of user RAM, and code the interrupt handlers in exactly the same locations (relative to the beginning of the program) as you would if the program were origined at location zero.
2.4 MO52 configuration for GPC® xxx
The previous descriptions are valid for each 8051 based card while in this paragraph the information relative to MO52 use on grifo® boards, are listed:
|
Card GPC® F2 |
Communication 9600 B, 8 bit, 1 stop, no parity |
User RAM beginnin 8050 |
Last Up-dated at September 09, 2004
