8051 Derivatives
Along the way, this 8031 architecture gained enviable market acceptance. Many semiconductor manufacturers started either manufacturing the 8031 devices as such (Intel was liberal in giving away license to whoever asked) or developing a new kind of microcontrollers based on 8031 core architecture.
Manufacturers modified the basic 8031 architecture and added many new peripheral functions to make them attractive to the designers.
Because of the rush, electronic community started getting a variety of 8031 based devices with range of options. To beat the competition, manufacturers developed different microcontrollers with many unique features.
These parts are popularly known as '8031 Derivatives'. Almost every decent manufacturer boasted of having an 8031 based microcontroller in the line card.
First major manufacturer was the Philips who brought out more than 40-50 derivatives with a variety of I/O options, memory combinations, and peripheral functions. Devices became available in regular DIP and SMD packages. With the basic 8031 core, Philips ported high capacity Program Memory (upto 32K/64K), its patented I2C interface bus, 8/10 bit Analog to Digital Converters, CAN Bus, Capture and Compare registers, Watch dog timer, PWM facilities and etc. More I/O ports (as many as eight ports), additional timer/counter, second serial port was also made available in Philips devices.
Apart from all these, Philips developed many consumer devices meant for telecom, computer and TV applications. A smart card controller was also developed by incorporating a cryptographic engine. So Philips clearly established itself as the market leader in 8031 derivatives and still caters to this segment.
Then came Dallas semiconductor. Dallas redesigned the 8031 architecture and eliminated waste clock cycles of original core and made all instructions executed in less clock cycles (maximum of 4) which has traditionally taken upto 12 clock cycles. So, came the birth of High speed 8031 Derivatives.
Dallas also maintained the same device pin out configurations to enable the user get upto 3X performance by replacing slower parts with a Dallas device. So, existing compiled code started running faster without any modification. These days, you can find Dallas devices giving upto 50 MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second).
Apart from this, Dallas introduced additional Serial port, Watch Dog Timer, Precision Reset Circuitry, Real Time Clock, Power Fail Monitor in the 8031 devices. Also a second data pointer, more onchip RAM space and more interrupt lines were also made available.
Dallas semiconductor also has got a range of secure microcontrollers based on 8031 core. This microcontroller family uses non volatile RAM to keep both program and data. Because of this RAM, the controller gives the In System Reprogrammability. Dallas has combined this microcontroller, SRAM and lithium cell in a single pack. This device guarantees 10+ years of data retention in the RAM area. This 8031 also boasts the tamper proof security features like Real Time Memory Encryption, user selected 48 bit Encryption key, memory contents, security lock and the facility to hide interrupt vector table. As you can agree, this particular 8031 device has found a niche market in banking and security related applications.
Atmel Corporation is the another major semiconductor manufacturer who introduced many flash memory based 8031 derivatives at a competitive cost. Atmel used its expertise in flash memory technology into the basic 8031 core and brought out microcontrollers with a variety of flash memory options and few devices also carry In System Reprogramming facility. You can program/reprogram this microcontroller after soldering the device in the target board. If this programming facility is embedded in the system software, then the tasks like remote calibration, onsite system upgradation become as easy as sending your data/program in a floppy disk or by internet. Atmel devices sport security lock to its flash memory to protect the contents from the prying eyes.
Meantime, Intel itself tried to cash in the popularity of this 8031 architecture and introduced improved versions of microcontrollers: 80151 and 80251 families. These devices sport 16 bit architecture using 8031 core and unfortunately these devices have not become as popular as 8031.Even after many years of introduction, 8031 core is still going strong in 8 bit arena.
