After failing at almost all other attempts at making my 8051 system come alive, (Yes, I even tried doing a double-sided board with no success), I have come up with an idea that just might work.

I was thinking of adding a 74HC245 buffer package to my circuit (where each of the high bits A8-A15 pass through each buffer in the chip).

so it may seem ridiculous for me to add extra chips, BUT, the main reason why I want to go for it is because I want to avoid alot of jumpers in my circuit.

I don't think the processor will be hurt because the buffer is being applied to the high address lines (port 2), and they are held the same value more often than the A/D lines (port 0).

Now, I am tempted to connect the buffer enable line to ground to always enable the buffer, but the question is, if the buffer is enabled, would the output always equal the input, no matter what current is applied to the input?