[Andrew] picked up a handful of these big STC 8051 chips for a song and dance. The problem he has with them is the clunky VB6 programming software that only wants to run on a Windows box.

“We’re excited to support SMH Technologies’ efforts to make in-system programming of systems using our class-leading 8051 IP cores not just feasible, but easy and extremely cost-effective.” "Tests ...

Eventually, [Matt] stumbled across this awesome resource for 8051 programming ... realize this 30-year-old chip has 32 IO pins. This microcontroller, along with its bigger brother the 8052 ...

The M8051 is a configurable soft-core implementation of the industry standard 8051 microcontroller that features a clock compatible twelve clocks per machine cycle architecture. This microcode-free ...