STC Micro's STC8G Family Gets an Unofficial Arduino Core for Easier Coding

Developer and computer engineering student Bùi Trịnh Thế Viên has released an Arduino code designed to make it easier to write sketches for the STC Micro STC8G microcontroller family.

"I recently developed an Arduino core for STC8 microcontrollers (STC8G series) to simplify development and eliminate the need for manual SDCC compilation and flashing," Thế Viên explains. "Full Arduino IDE integration. Uses [the] SDCC compiler backend. Built-in stcgal for flashing. Cross-platform support (Windows & Linux). Install via Arduino Boards Manager."

STC Micro's STC8G microcontrollers are based on the classic Intel 8051 core, and target the cost-conscious designer — to the point that they're intended for use without an external oscillator, to reduce overall component count. While the 8051 is a somewhat vintage technology at this point — having been designed by Intel in the 1980s — STC says its implementation is around 12 times faster than Intel's original, helping to bridge the gap between the 8051 core and more modern alternatives.

Getting the hardware is only one part of the equation, of course, and it's the software side of things where Thế Viên is aiming to help. The STC8 Core installs into the Arduino IDE using the Board Manager, bringing in everything you need to both compile and flash a sketch onto the microcontroller — without having to manually handle any dependencies yourself.

"No more struggling with PlatformIO configs or manual compilation," Thế Viên promises of his creation. "Just write Arduino code and upload!"

The source code for the project is available on GitHub under an unspecified license, along with board definitions for running an STC8 microcontroller at up to 33MHz and example sketches for digital input/output, serial communication, and interrupts.