Processor IP + Compiler

If 8051 is OK with you I suggest getting the Oregano IP core.
It is fast, reliable, and free.
I tried it with many programs and it worked fine.
Get it here: http://www.oregano.at/ip/8051.htm

Regards, yego

The xr16 CPU Core
xr16 is a simple 16-bit reduced instruction set computer designed to run integer-only
C programs. Its design is optimized for an area-efficient pipelined implementation in
a field-programmable gate array and other gate- and interconnect-constrained
environments.
http://www.fpgacpu.org/xsoc/xr16.html

I investigated the xr16 designe some time ago, and there were different comments presented.
Some of them stated that the CPU was still in its designe phase which is it had some bugs in the design.
Besides as far as I can remember they didn't implement delay slots.
Also some nasty feature they implemented was that the flags used to decide whether to make a branch or not were some 3 or 4 cycles old.
On top of that no register forwarding was implemented.
All in all I gave up this concept as I didn't like its shortcomings at all.
I am sure that it has some nice feartures and can be useful for some purposes, but it will never become a high performance machine unless they correct those simplifications.

I don't know the most current state of matters for this design, but I am sure that it is far more powerful than the old 8051.
So if you're after performance, xr16 will be better for you.

regards, yego

Thanks all,

yego, which compiler can i use to create binaries for this IP??
Thanks in advance.

You can use any compiler supporting the '51 architecture.
There are c.a. 666 available around.
Some are free, some are evals limited to a certain amount of code or source lines, and some are commercial which you can buy in the net.
The choice is yours.
Just pick one and see if you like it.

For small projects I use the Raisonance eval IDE and compiler.
It is quite handy, accurate and easy to learn. It is limited to 4kB of code, so for small projects it should do.

try this link https://www.raisonance.com/

I am sure folks over here can provide many more links to free tools for the '51 architecture.
One important thing is that you need a PLAIN 8051 compatible compiler.
Oregano is just a faster 8051 without bells and whistles.

Regards, yego