The Silicon Labs C8051 family of products is based on a Harvard architecture, allowing it to only execute code fetched from program memory, and allows locking of program memory to prevent unauthorized examination. These are two advantages in the C8051 hardware that protects a product from security attacks.The C8051 microcontroller is ideal for processing 8-bit data that comes from port I/O or sensors inputs. A great many applications don’t require complex mathematics processing, and benefit significantly from the code density advantages of an 8-bit processor when not tasked with 16-bit or 32-bit mathematics. Human interface functions, sensor interface, and distributed processing functions are examples that easily benefit from the simplicity of the C8051 solutions.
