I agree with Bill. What is an 8051 supposed to do with a 1500 byte incoming packet when it has only 1K of RAM. OK So it has 2K of RAM you say, and I say "don't you want to be double buffered on both the transmitter and the receiver"? Can you see where this is going. Drop the 8051 if you want to do ethernet. Stop wasting your time on silly projects.
Sorry, I realize these posts are dated but I had to chime in. Having worked with 8051's extensively (although long ago) I clearly see some *false* statements here.
First off, the 8051/8031 can be used with external ram and rom, 64k each (separate address spaces) used when you strap the EA pin low. As I recall the 8051 had a very nice instruction set for those who like to do assembly programming. Some of the newer 8051 core based processors are rather nice and wicked fast. There are free compilers on the net for those who want to use "C".
And just to add insult to injury:
**broken link removed**
And I believe this is a $9 part.
As far as something being bad because it's old, well I guess that'd leave me out in the cold. I'm in good company though. As a result your neo-tech snobery attitude I think we'd have to throw out things like *english* and the *lever* cause their old, that and *algebra* (it's about 4000 years old) as well as bolean alegbra (it's about 159 years old). That's stuff is old and passe. We can't use it because it's "old".
As far as terms like "silly" and "stop wasting your time" these are rather destructive (read *useless*) in terms of instruction and encouragement. This guy could have built the thing his way, succeeded or failed with the energy you sought to destroy with your careless commentary. At least if he built it and failed, he'd be and expert on what and what not to do and have the satisfaction of at least meeting a portion of his goals (along with
solid experience). Even if he failed he'd be in a good position to move on to something
more appropriate with a much higher confidence level.
*if he actually succeeded he could come back here and make you eat crow*
(I think I'd like to see that)
The guy is clearly trying to make do with what he has on hand. I'd like to seem it use what he has and see what happens. If his 8051 variant is too slow, by how much? Is
there limited cases where it would work? Can it at least do ICMP? These would be
solid data points. If he did get far enough to evaluate the system using an 8051 variant
we'd have solid data from which the *community* could use to frame microcontroller projects of this type with.