What is a data pointer in 8051 Microcontrollers?

In 8051 Microcontrollers, a data pointer is a 16-bit register that holds the address of a memory location in the internal RAM. The 8051 architecture has two data pointers: DPTR0 and DPTR1.

DPTR0 is used for accessing code space in external memory, while DPTR1 is used for accessing data space in external memory. When the 8051 is executing code, the program counter (PC) points to the current instruction being executed. In contrast, when using data pointers, the DPTR register points to the memory location that is being accessed.