I did a google on "can 8051" and got some useful hits. there's also atmel, microchip,philips and many more that make CAN based micros - no use ignoring app notes on microchip just because it's for a PIC - there might be some interesting background information. Many times when people ask an obvious question - we go and do a google just to make sure, more often that not it returns many good hits. That's why we say 'google'!!!