This set of 8051 Micro-controller Multiple Choice Questions & Answers (MCQs)

focuses on Architecture.
1. 8051 series of micro controllers are made by which of the following
companies?
a) Atmel
b) Philips
c) none of the mentioned
d) both of the mentioned
View Answer
Answer: d
Explanation: Atmel series AT89C2051 and Philips family P89C51RD2 are the two most common
micro controllers of 8051 family.

2. AT89C2051 has RAM of:

a) 128 bytes
b) 256 bytes
c) 64 bytes
d) 512 bytes
View Answer
Answer: b
Explanation: It has 128 bytes of RAM in it.

3. 8051 series has how many 16 bit registers?

a) 2
b) 3
c) 1
d) 0
View Answer
Answer: a
Explanation: It has two 16 bit registers DPTR and PC.

4. When 8051 wakes up then 000 is loaded to which register?

a) DPTR
b) SP
c) PC
d) PSW
View Answer

Answer: c
Explanation: When a program wakes up, then 000 is loaded to the program counter register
because at this place the first op code is burnt.

5. When the micro controller executes some arithmetic operations, then the flag
bits of which register are affected?
a) PSW
b) SP
c) DPTR
d) PC
View Answer
6. How is the status of the carry, auxiliary carry and parity flag affected if write
instruction
MOV A,#9C
ADD A,#64H
a) CY=0,AC=0,P=0
b) CY=1,AC=1,P=0
c) CY=0,AC=1,P=0
d) CY=1,AC=1,P=1
View Answer
Answer: b
Explanation: On adding 9C and 64, a carry is generated from D3 and from the D7 bit so CY and AC
are set to 1. In the result, the number of 1s present are even so parity flag is set to zero.

7. How are the bits of the register PSW affected if we select Bank2 of 8051?
a) PSW.5=0 and PSW.4=1
b) PSW.2=0 and PSW.3=1
c) PSW.3=1 and PSW.4=1
d) PSW.3=0 and PSW.4=1
View Answer
Answer: d
Explanation: Bits of PSW register are CY, AC, F0, RS1, RS0, OV, -, P so for selecting bank2 RS1=1
and RS0=0 which are fourth and third bit of the register respectively.

8. If we push data onto the stack then the stack pointer

a) increases with every push
b) decreases with every push
c) none of the mentioned

d) both of the mentioned

View Answer
Answer: a
Explanation: If we push elements onto the stack then the stack pointer increases with every push of
element.

9.On power up, the 8051 uses which RAM locations for register R0- R7
a) 00-2F
b) 00-07
c) 00-7F
d) 00-0F
View Answer
Answer: b
Explanation: On power up register bank 0 is selected which has memory address from 00H-07H.

10. How many bytes of bit addressable memory is present in 8051 based micro
controllers?
a) 8 bytes
b) 32 bytes
c) 16 bytes
d) 128 bytes
View Answer
Answer: c
Explanation: 8051 micro controllers have 16 bytes of bit addressable memory.

1. What do you mean by the term embedded controllers ?

Ans: The devices that has all the functional blocks on chip, including the program and data memory
and there is no external data/address bus provided. For example, ATMEL89C2051.
2. Discuss the advantages of microcontrollers over microprocessors in control applications?
Ans: The first main advantage is that the ALUs can be assembled together horizontally to form
computers that can handle very large data at a time. Another advantage is bit slice design that makes
use of possible bipolar chip technology that is very fast.
3. What are RISC and CISC processors?
Ans: RISC chips requires lesser hardware implementations, which makes them simpler to design and
hence lesser costs of production.

4. Discuss the criteria for selecting a microcontroller device.

Ans: It must have ram and rom to support its inbuilt functions. It must have +5v supply, must be fast
and should have programmable and data memory.
5. List few features of 8051 microcontroller?
Ans: Operating frequency is 12mhz, separate 64k program and 64k data memory, multiply and
divide instructions has a boolean processor
6. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Harvard and Von Neuman architectures.
Ans: Harvard architecture uses separate memories for program and data memory whereas Von
Neuman uses same program and data memory.Therefore Harvard is faster compared to other one.
7. What is the purpose of ALU ?
Ans: ALU performs arithmetic and logical operation on 8- bit operands. Accumulator is the register
which gets the output of the ALU in most of the arithmetic and logical operations.
8. Name 2 register that consists of 16 bit.
Ans: Program counter and Data pointer
9. Name few general purpose registers
Ans: Accumulator, B-register, R0- R7
10. What are SFR?
Ans: The 128 bytes of on-chip additional RAM locations from 80H to 0FFH are reserved for the special
functions and therefore these are called as special function register.
SECTION-B
LONG QUESTIONS: (each 10 marks)
1. List all the registers used in 8051 microcontroller in brief.
Ans: General purpose register: Accumulator, B-registers and four register banks may be used as
general purpose registers.
Accumulator:Similar to any microprocessor like 8085, MCS-51 has an 8- bit accumulator.
Accumulator is used by all the arithmetic and logical instructions.
B-register: B- register is an 8- bit wide register. It is available as general- purpose register when it is
not being used by multiplication and division operations.
Registers R0 to R7: These eight registers are used as scratch pad registers. There are four registers
banks each containing R0 to R7 registers.
Stack pointer:Stack pointer of 8051 is a 8 bit wide. It is incremented during push or call operation
and is decremented during pop or return operation.
Special function register: The 128 bytes of on-chip additional RAM locations from 80H to 0FFH are
reserved for the special functions and therefore these are called as special function register.
Program Status Word: PSW is an 8 bit register . It consists of auxillary flag, overflow flag, parity

flag.
DPTR (Data pointer):: It is 16 bit register consisting of two types DPH and DPL . One with data
pointer high and other data pointer low.
Timer register: Register pairs th0 , tl0, th1, tl1.
Control registers: TCON, TMOD, IE,IP, SCON, PCON contain the control and status for interrupts,
serialy and timer/ counters.
Capture register:: RCAP2H RCAP2L are the capture registers.
2. Draw the pin diagram of 8051 microcontroller.

3. Draw the memory organisation of mcs 51.

ans:
4. What are all addressing modes of mcs-51?
Ans: There are five addressing modes in 8051 which are as follows:1. Register Addressing: In this registers r0 to r7 from the selected register bank, accumulator, bregister, carry bit and dptr are used.
2. Direct Addressing: In this, direct address of the operand is specified in the instruction itself.
Direct addressing mode uses the lower 128 bytes of internal RAM and the special function registers.
3. Register-Indirect Addressing:
It uses any one of the registers R0 to R7 from the selected register bank, as pointer to the location in

the 256 bytes of data memory.

4.Immediate Addressing: Immediate addressing allows using immediate data as a part of the
instructions.
5. Base register and index register: This mode allows a byte to be accessed from the program
memory, whose address is calculated as the sum of a base register and index register.
5. Enlist the various flags in the PSW register.
Ans: The various flag used in PSW register is as follows:Parity flag
Overflow flag
RS0
RS1
Future Use
Auxillary Flag
Carry Flag
6. Draw the block diagram of 8051 microcontroller