I would come down on the side of using USB. The ports on the 8051 derivatives are available from a number of vendors and I have been told that getting the microcontroller end up and running is really easy. On the PC/Visual Basic end you will need to get your hands on one of the "generic" USB drivers for Windows. The generic drivers interface easily with VC++ or with VB and give you a generic data pipe from the application down to the target device.

Here is the reason I recommend the USB solution. It is from this implementation you will gain the most directly re-usable experience for future embedded 8051/8052 type projects. The usability of USB, with its self powered bus, is just on the brink of exploding if not already doing so. (Heck I just observed that Lattice Semiconductor is just now offering their JTAG downloader cable for programming CPLDs and FPGAs in circuit as a USB hosted device. Another important consideration is that RS232 ports as we know them on PCs and Notebooks are soon to be complete history. Even now most new hardware is sans COMM ports.

USB is the next big connectivity giant and anyone doing embedded work should consider getting up to speed on it as soon as the opportunity arises.

There's my $2 worth. ;-)


Michael Karas