SDCC (Small Device C Compiler) is a Free and Open Source, re-targetable, optimising ANSI-C compiler by Sandeep Dutta designed for 8 bit Microprocessors. The current version supports 8051 and its derivatives. For the complete list of supported micro-controllers, visit the SDCC website — http://sdcc.sourceforge.net.

From the Flash Magic website, Flash Magic is a PC tool for programming flash based microcontrollers from NXP using a serial or Ethernet protocol while in the target hardware. For more details visit the Flash Magic website — http://www.flashmagictool.com.

Smash is a Free and Open Source, 8051 micro-controller flashing tool. It has been developed by Zilogic Systems, and released under the GNU GPL, to enable programming 8051 based board from GNU/Linux and Windows. Smash is written in Python and uses GTK+ for the GUI interface. Smash website — http://code.google.com/p/smash-tool/

The host system talks to the board throug the USB-Serial interface provided by FT232R. Hence, the host system should have the FT232R driver. The drivers for Linux is available in the mainline kernel since version 2.6.9. The drivers for Windows are available from the vendor and is included in the CD-ROM.

ZDev is a Free and Open Source, software library for 8051 micro-controllers. It has been developed by Zilogic Systems, and released under the LGPL.