How do I use the Silicon Laboratories IDE with SDCC?

Question

I'm thinking about using a microcontroller with an 8051 core from Silicon Laboratories. I hope that I can use C rather than assembly language, so I installed SDCC.

I installed the "Silicon Laboratories IDE" to download the executable binaries to the on-chip Flash program memory. It also supposedly can be set up (under the Project > Tool Chain Integration menu) to use "any" 8051 compiler.

I tried to set it up to use SDCC, but every time I hit the "Assemble/Compile File" button it tells me "Compiler process did not sucessfully complete."

How do I get new C code I write onto the SiLabs C8051F310 chip? Is there a web site with a step-by-step HOWTO? (Would it be easier to use a MAKEFILE that calls SDCC, only using the "Silicon Laboratories IDE" for the very last step of downloading the executable binary to the chip?)

Answer 1

Start with Silicon Labs Application Note 198 - INTEGRATING SDCC 8051 TOOLS INTO THE SILICON LABS IDE^*. It is written for an older version of the IDE, but the general configuration should remain the same. It is probably important to note that AN198 needs updating for SDCC 3.0.0. Additional information from the Silicon Labs MCU User Forum or Microcontrollers Knowledge Base may prove useful as well.

The SDCC Compiler User Guide^* can be useful if additional command line options are desired.

The Silicon Labs USB Debug Adapter can be used with the Silicon Labs IDE and the on-chip debug/programming circuitry of the C8051F310^* for programming the MCU and debugging your code.

^{* PDF Link}