- H8 Family
H8 is the name of a large family of
8-bit and16-bit microcontroller s made byRenesas Technology , originating in the early 1990s within Hitachi Semiconductor and still actively evolving as of 2006.Subfamilies include the H8/300, H8/300H, H8/500, H8S and H8SX series, each with dozens of different parts, varying by speed, selection of built in
peripheral s such as timers andserial port s, and amounts of ROM and Flash-Memory and RAM. Built in ROM and Flash-Memory tends to range from 16 kB to 1024 kB, and RAM from 512 B to 512 kB.The basic architecture of the H8 is patterned after the DEC
PDP-11 , with eight 16-bit registers (the H8/300H and H8S have an additional bank of eight 16-bit registers), and a variety ofaddressing mode s. Both H8/300H and H8S have eight32-bit registers, each of which can be treated as one 32-bit register, two 16-bit registers, or two 8-bit registers. Several companies providecompiler s for the H8 family, and there is a complete GCC port, including a simulator. There are also various hardware emulators available.H8S may be found in
digital camera s, printer controllers,smart card s, and in various automotive subsystems. Also, the LEGO Mindstorms advanced robot toy/educational tool uses this architecture (a H8/300, to be specific).Namco employed an H8/3002 as a sound processor for various games it made in the late 1990s: notably those using its System 12 architecture.External links
* [http://eu.renesas.com/fmwk.jsp?cnt=mpumcu_category_landing.jsp&fp=/products/mpumcu#H8S_Family&bit16&family Renesas Technology Website]
* http://www.RenesasInteractive.com – Online training for Renesas products.
* http://www.RenesasRulz.com – A community support forum.
* http://www.kpitgnutools.com – Official GNUH8 Toolchain (free download and technical support)
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