A Comparative Analysis of Conventional

8051 Microcontroller with Modern Ultra

Low Power MSP430
#1
Nishit Chittora, #2Akshay Nigam, #3Pankaj Chaudhary, #4Saurabh Porwal

nish2405@gmail.com, pankajchaudhary1708@gmail.com, akshaynigam89@yahoo.in,

porwalnk@rediffmail.com
1, 2, 3
Electronics & Communication Engineering Department,
4
Sr. Lecturer, Electronics & Communication Engineering Department,
#
Geetanjali Institute of Technical Studies, Udaipur

Abstract— Computational tools and computing
machines were always the attraction and motivation
for the technological implementation in the field of
industrial and domestic products. The popularity of
microcontroller is ever increasing, as fuelled by the
advances in the semiconductor industry. They are
embedded in almost any device connected to power
or battery. The limitations of digital electronics have
almost vanished today, due to emergence of these
varieties of powerful microcontrollers. By reducing
the size and cost compared to a design that uses a
separate microprocessor, memory, and input/output
devices, microcontrollers make it economical to
digitally control even more devices and processes
consuming less power. In this paper featural
characteristic of latest processor MSP430 is
highlighted. These processors utilize common,
integrating analog components to control non-
digital electronic systems. A comparison is done
among different features of the ultra low power
MSP430 with the conventional 8051
microcontroller. Broad application areas and
advantages of MSP430 microcontroller over 8051
are also illustrated and reviewed in terms of power
consumption and additional on-chip components.
Keywords—Microcontroller, 8051, MSP430,
Architectural features, low-power modes.
office machines, appliances, power tools, and
toys.
The first industry efficient microcontroller
Intel MCS-51 is based on Harvard architecture. It
is single chip microcontroller (µC) series which
was developed by Intel in 1980 for use
in embedded systems. Intel's original versions
were popular in the 1980s and early 1990s, but
has today largely been superseded by a vast range
of faster and/or functionally enhanced 8051-
compatible devices manufactured by more than
20 independent manufacturers. Intel's original
MCS-51 family was developed
using NMOS technology, but later versions,
identified by a letter C in their name (e.g., 80C51)
used CMOS technology and were less power-
hungry than their NMOS predecessors. This made
them more suitable for battery-powered devices.
However, as the need has grown, a desire to
control more number of hip components has
increased, which seeks more power.

I. INTRODUCTION
A microcontroller is a functional computer
system-on-a-chip. It contains a processor core,
memory and programmable input/output
peripherals. They consume relatively little power
(milliwatts), and will generally have the ability to
retain functionality while waiting for an event
such as button press or interrupt. As they are
programmable, its programs must fit in the
available on-chip program memory to reduce its Fig. 1 Basic block diagram of microcontroller
cost. Since processors interpret and process
digital data, i.e. only 1s and 0s only, they won’t The Texas Instrument’s MSP430 is a mixed-
be able to do anything with the analog signals that signal microcontroller family from Texas
may be being sent to it by a device. So as an A/D Instruments. Built around a 16-bit CPU, the
converter is used to convert the incoming data MSP430 is designed for low cost, and
into a form that the processor can recognise. specifically, low power consumption embedded
Microcontrollers are now used in all applications. The MSP430 is particularly well
automatically controlled products and devices, suited for metering, wireless radio frequency
such as automobile engine control systems, engineering (RF), or battery-powered
implantable medical devices, remote controls, applications.
 In MSP430 a 16-bit RISC CPU, peripherals
and flexible clock system are combined by using
a Von-Neumann common memory address bus
(MAB) and memory data bus (MDB). Partnering
a modern CPU with modular memory-mapped
analog and digital peripherals, the MSP430 offers
solutions for all mixed-signal applications.
Fig. 2 Block diagram of MSP430 microcontroller
II. POWER MANAGEMENT
Power management would be much simpler if
all portable electronics requires the same
operating voltage. In recent years, power
consumption has moved to the forefront of digital
IC development concerns. The combination of
higher clock speeds, greater functional
integration, and smaller process geometries has
contributed to significant growth in power
density. Furthermore, with every new process
generation, leakage power consumption increases
at an exponential rate.
Most parts have a shutdown or sleep mode
available that will reduce the current consumption
of the component considerably. In general, digital
parts consume significant current when their
transistors switch because of the charging and
discharging of the internal capacitances of the
transistors. Analogue integrated circuits also
support shutdown modes to reduce power
consumption. It is important to note that when a
device is in shutdown mode, power and ground
voltages are still powered and connected to the
device.
In order to shutdown most integrated circuits,
all that is required is a shutdown or sleep pin to be
asserted properly. Other devices require a
shutdown command to be issued over the bus.
The primary disadvantages of shutdown modes,
apart from the fact that the device is inoperative is
that recovering back into normal operating modes
can impose a significant delay.
In battery operated electronic devices, the
energy required to execute given tasks set is one
of very important parameters. The modern
MSP430 microcontroller provides a number of
methods to reduce microcontroller power
requirements by selecting among the various
available low power modes. In lower power
mode, the processor can achieve current in the
microamps while still monitoring its inputs. The
modes vary the degree to which the processor is
aware of its surroundings and the clocks that the
processor keeps running. Further a useful
property of the MSP430 is that its recovery time
from some low-power modes is fast enough to
meet the response times of interrupts.
III. CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES
A. 8051 Microcontroller Key Features
The 8051 architecture provides many functions
(CPU, RAM, ROM, I/O, interrupt logic, timer,
etc.) in a single package
1. 8-bit ALU, Accumulator and 8-bit Registers,
hence it is an 8-bit microcontroller.
2. 8-bit data bus – It can access 8 bits of data in
one operation
3. 16-bit address bus – It can access 216 memory
locations – 64 KB (65536 locations) each of
RAM and ROM
4. On-chip RAM – 128 bytes (data memory)
5. On-chip ROM – 4 KByte (program memory)
6. Four byte bi-directional input/output port
7. UART (serial port)
8. Two 16-bit Counter/timers
9. Two-level interrupt priority
10. Two power saving modes
B. MSP430 Microcontroller Key Features
MSP430 offers 200+ ultra-low power
microcontrollers devices. Each device features a
flexible clocking system. MSP430 ensures that
the application only uses the appropriate clocks
and peripherals that are needed to perform the
task at hand. Several features make the MSP430
suitable for low-power and portable applications,
which are hardly present in 8051 microcontroller:
1. MSP430 has low power consumption,
a. It takes only 0.1µA for RAM data
retention.
b. Requires 0.8 µA for real time clock
mode operation.
c. And 250 µA per MIPS (Machine
Instructions per Second) at active
operation
2. It works on low operating voltages ranging
from 1.8 V to 3.6 V in different operating
modes.
3. The port has low leakage current typically
less than 50nA.
4. These controllers can be put easily from
active mode to low-power mode by
controlling bits in the status register. These
supports several low-power modes,
depending on how much of the device should
remain active and how quickly it should
return to full-speed operation.
5. MSP430 contain specialized on-chip
analogue components for various types of
measurement like
a. 10/12/16-bit Analog-to-Digital
Converter (ADC)
 b. 12-bit dual Digital-to-Analog Converter
(DAC)
c. Comparator-gated timers to count for
events.
d. Operational Amplifiers for comparison.
e. Supply Voltage Supervisor (SVS) to
generate a system reset (POR) when the
external supply voltage drops below a
user-selectable threshold.
6. These controllers can drive directly many
portable devices such as USART, I2C/SPI
Universal Serial Interface and LCD displays.
7. The architecture of these devices is 16-bit
RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing)
with following features:
a. Instructions processing done on any bits,
bytes or words.
b. Compact core design which reduces
power consumption and cost.
c. Has 51 instructions (27 core + 24
emulated).
d. Supports 7 addressing modes.
e. Has extensive vectored-interrupt
capability. Any interrupt can wake up
the MSP430 from low-power mode to
active mode and transfer the routine of
the program to vector locations causing
that interrupt.
8. Availability of wide choice of clocks with
different sources.
IV. REAL-TIME CAPABILITY WITH ULTRA-LOW
POWER CONSUMPTION
The design of the MSP430 was driven by the
need to provide full real-time capability while still
exhibiting extremely low power consumption.
Average power consumption is reduced to the
minimum by running the CPU and certain other
functions of the MSP430 only when it is
necessary. The rest of the time (the majority of
the time), power is conserved by keeping only
selected low-power peripheral functions active.
But to have a true real-time capability, the device
must be able to shift from a low-power mode with
the CPU off to a fully active mode with the CPU
and all other device functions operating nominally
in a very short time. This was accomplished
primarily with the design of the system clocks.
The MSP430 has three separate clocks that
can run as quickly as 16 MHz in particular
conditions. The reason three clocks instead of just
one or even two is to compromise between
systems that need speed and the ability to
minimize power consumption, one of the real
hallmarks of the MSP430. Faster clocks consume
more power, so to really reduce the power used
we need slower clocks. But some functions need
to respond and conclude quickly, so we also need
fast clocks. We can design around the use of a
single clock, but having the flexibility of three is
powerful. The three clocks available in BCS+
module are
A. MCLK: This is the Master Clock, the one that
drives the processor and times the commands
in your program. This is typically a high
frequency clock, but can be configured for
low frequencies if needed.
B. SMCLK: The Sub-Main Clock is a secondary
clock that is often used by other peripherals.
It can be the same frequency as MCLK or
different, depending on the application.
C. ACLK: The Auxiliary Clock is usually timed
outside the MSP430 and is typically used for
peripherals. Often, this is a low frequency
clock, but can also be used at high frequencies
when desired.
All of the techniques that improve code
efficiency will improve power efficiency.
Increasing clock speed will not yield similar
power savings because faster execution increases
power consumption. Similarly, unused peripheral
modules on the processor should be de-activated
to save power.
V. MSP430 APPLICATION OPERATING MODES
MSP430 has six operating modes including
the active mode, each with different power
requirements. Three of these modes are important
for battery-powered applications:
A. Active mode
In this mode the CPU and other device
functions run all the time. It is used for
calculations, decision-making, I/O functions, and
other activities that require the capabilities of an
operating CPU. All of the peripheral functions
may be used, provided that they are enabled.
B. Low power mode 3 (LPM3)
This is the normal mode for most applications
during 99% to 99.9% of the time. This mode is
also called done mode or sleep mode. This mode
is most important for battery-powered
applications. The CPU is disabled, but enabled
peripherals stay active. The basic timer provides a
precise time base. When enabled, interrupts
restore the CPU, switch on MCLK, and start
normal operation.
C. Low power mode 4 (LPM4)
This mode is typically used during storage.
This mode is also called off mode. It is used if the
absolute lowest supply current is necessary or if
no timing is needed or desired (no change of the
RAM content is allowed). This is normally the
case for storage preceding or following the
calibration process.
VI. APPLICATIONS
Within the MSP430 platform, it includes 5
generations of ultra-low power, highly integrated
microcontrollers spanning over 200 devices. It
also offers various levels of analog integration,
digital peripherals, and communication protocols
to help developers find the right microcontroller
for various applications. MSP430 applications fall
into two main classes, depending on the power
supply:
For AC power-driven applications such as
electricity meters and AC-powered controllers the
microcontroller needs to be active at all times.
The low current consumption of the MSP430
when active (900 µA @ 5V & fC = 1 MHz) puts it
well within the typical low-power category now
which is currently < 40 mA.
For battery-powered applications such as gas
meters, water flow meters, heat volume counters,
data loggers, and other controller and remote
metering tasks power consumption is the key
issue since operation from a single battery for 10
years or longer is often required. The average
current drawn by the MSP430 needs to be in the
range of the self discharge current of the battery,
approximately 1 µA to 3 µA.
Thus the major applications of MSP430 are in
Utility Metering, Portable Medical and
instrumentation, Low-power Wireless
Application, Intelligent Sensing, Communication
and telecom, Consumer Electronics, Security
Systems, Energy and lightening, Space Avionics
and Defence, Transportation Automotive.
The conventional 8051 microcontrollers are
generally used in Home Appliances, Office
Accessories, Portable electronic gadgets,
biomedical instrumentation, Automobile
industries, mission critical application, solar
panels etc.
REFERENCES
[1] Abhishek Sharma, Saurabh Porwal, Embedded System
Design, 2011, First Edition, Ashirwad Publications,
ISBN: 9789380343433.
[2] John H. Davies, MSP 430 Microcontroller Basics,
2010, Elsevier Inc., ISBN: 9780750682763
[3] Chris Nagy, Embedded Systems Design using the TI
MSP430 Series, 2003, Boston Newnes, Embedded
Technology Series, ISBN 075067623X.
[4] MSP430 Microcontroller Essentials, CD-ROM from
Texas Instruments, 2009.
[5] Ajay V. Deshmukh, 2008, Microcontrollers: Theory
and Applications, First Edition, Tata McGraw-Hill
Publishing Company Ltd., ISBN: 9780070585959
[6] Muhammad Ali Mazidi, Janice Gillispie Mazidi and
Rollin D. McKinlay, The Microcontroller and
Embedded Systems: using Assembly & C, 2009,
TABLE 1 COMPARISON BETWEEN 8051 AND MSP430
Features 8051
CPU width 8-bit
Architecture 8-bit internal data bus width and
16-bit internal address bus with
Harvard architecture
Register Sets 8-bit and 16-bit
Type of processor CISC
Addressing modes 5 7
Clocking System Fixed
Interfacing General purpose Devices
interfaced externally
VII. CONCLUSION
One of the most important quality standards
for battery powered devices is battery life.
Handheld medical tools, electricity meters,
personal digital assistants, and a goal of the
designer and programmer is to lower the power
use of the embedded system to negligible levels.
In designing battery powered devices, savings can
be gained from the choice of electronic
components, the arrangement of components, and
the software on the design. The MSP430 supports
various low power modes thus we can conclude
that, the ultra-low power mixed-signal
microcontrollers from TI provides the ultimate
solution for a wide range of low power and
portable applications.
To enable the adoption of advanced low-
power techniques by mainstream users, the
MSP430 fulfils the need for a design flow which
holistically addresses the architecture, design,
verification, and implementation of low-power
designs.
The major advantage of MSP430 is that it
requires very low input power supply for its
operation, Further more it has inbuilt ADC and
DAC which are not present in 8051
microcontroller. The MSP430's DMA allows data
transfers from one address to another without
CPU intervention, across the entire address range.
This features up to three independent transfer
channels.
Second Edition, Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd.,
ISBN: 9788131710265
[7] Kenneth J. Ayala and Dhananjay V. Gadre, The 8051
Microcontrollers and Embedded Systems: Using
Assembly & C, 2010, Second Impression, Cengage
Learning India Pvt. Ltd., ISBN: 9788131511053
[8] Satish Shah, 8051 Microcontrollers: MCS51 family and
its variants, 2010, First Edition, Oxford University
Press, ISBN:9780198063575
[9] I. Scott Mackenzie and Raphael C.-W. Phan, The 8051
Microcontroller, 2008, Fourth Edition, Pearson
Education, ISBN: 9788131720189
[10] Han-Way Huang, Embedded System Design using
C8051, 2009, Cengage Learning India Pvt. Ltd., ISBN:
9788131512241
[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_MCS-51
[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI_MSP430
[13] http://focus.ti.com/mcu/docs/mcumspoverview.tsp?sect
ionId=95&tabId=140&familyId=342
MSP430
16-bit
Flexibility of 16 data and address fully-
addressable, single-cycle 16-bit CPU registers
16-bit CPU registers
RISC
Flexible Clocking System with MCLK, ACLK
and SMCLK
A wide selection of on-chip general purpose
devices based on specific MSP430Fxxx platform.
Instruction sets 255 instructions 51 instructions (27 core + 24 emulated)
Timers 2 to 3 Several timers few of which have capture compare
modes
Watch Dog No Yes
Power requirement 5 Volt 1.8-3.6 Volt
Power dissipation 1.5Watt 4.5mW
On-chip components Not Available Available on-chip – USB, LCD, LCD_A
controllers, Software RTC Module
ADC and DAC External interface required Available on-chip
10, 12 and 16-bit different ADCs in specific
devices
On-chip wireless Not Available Available
features
DMA Not Available Available upto 3 to 8 channels
Low power modes Two mode available Five modes available
Programming Interface Aging RS232 4-wire JTAG and Spy Bi-wire interface
Cost Comparatively high Low-cost, lower-end applications.
Ideal for high-volume/Low-cost designs (25
cents)

AUTHORS

Saurabh Porwal is a Sr. Akshay Nigam is pursuing his

Lecturer in the department of technical graduation in
Electronics & Electronics and
Communication Engineering Communication Engineering at
Geetanjali Institute of Geetanjali Institute of
Technical Studies, Udaipur. Technical Studies, Udaipur. He
He has a professional has undertaken training on PLC
experience of working with Microcontrollers, & DCS systems in Videocon Industries Limited.
Automation & Instrumentation parts. He has He has also attended IEEE International
guided several projects based on Embedded Workshop on RF and Microwave. His subjects of
System design starting from hardware designing interest are Microcontroller, Wireless
to complete logic development, one of which got Communication and Digital Signal Processing.
sponsored from Department of Science and Currently he is working on DTMF based
Technology, Rajasthan. He has contributed and Telephone Remote Control and Automation.
presented several papers in various reputed
International & National Conferences & Seminars Pankaj Chaudhary is
of IEEE, IETE & IEI. He has acted as co-editor in pursuing his technical
the Book of Proceedings of the IEEE National graduation in Electronics and
Conference NCACA-2009 and also authored a Communication Engineering
text book on Embedded System Design for at Geetanjali Institute of
students of undergraduate level. Technical Studies, Udaipur.
Apart from this he has also
Nishit Chittora is pursuing his designed and developed
technical graduation in website of department of Electronics &
Electronics and Communication Engineering, GITS. His subjects
Communication Engineering of interest are Microcontroller, Microprocessor &
at Geetanjali Institute of Digital Electronics. He is currently working on
Technical Studies, Udaipur. the project Ultrasonic Range Finder based on
He has undergone training in microcontroller 8051.
HMT Machines Tools Ltd.,
Ajmer, on programmable Logic Controller. His
subjects of interest are Microcontroller,
Microprocessor, Control System, Robotics and
Digital Electronics. He is currently working on
the project Ultrasonic Range Finder based on
microcontroller 8051.
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