Have you ever wished C supported binary constants instead of octal? Here's a quick work-around that uses the preprocessor to make things easier for bit developers.

Adding a ser-ial interface by means of twiddling some leftover parallel I/O lines is an ancient ritual in building low-cost embedded systems. Check out the author's approach and example code for adding 9600 bps transfers to an 8051 system.

With the prolif-eration of on-chip debugging capabilities, most debugging chores can be accom-plished with low-cost emulators. But how useful are these new tools when compared with a full- fledged emulator? Mittag re-views four low-cost systems and com-pares them with a top-of-the-line ICE.