PIC Questions

[Jemison Richard]

Thanks Bill,

Found the site and am taking a cyber stroll as we speak!

Rick

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Bill the arcstarter [SMTP:arcstarter at hotmail.com]
> Sent:	Tuesday, November 03, 1998 8:18 PM
> To:	diy_efi at efi332.eng.ohio-state.edu
> Subject:	RE: PIC Questions
> 
> It was written:
> >For us novices, could you briefly explain what a PIC is exactly and 
> describe
> >(manufacturer / model / part#) the board you mention.  Also a brief
> >explanation of why you would prefer the PIC board to the HC11 (assuming 
> you
> >could find an HC11 board).
> 
> PICs are made by Microchip Technologies, url = http://www.microchip.com 
> .  They are usually small cheap simple RISC-ish processors which include 
> onboard ram, timers, uarts, etc.  Not all models have all options.
> 
> Most PICs have no external address/data us, but are instead chock full 
> of i/o lines which can be used for all sorts of things.
> 
> I've been fooling with these critters for a couple of years, and I can 
> only summarize them by saying that "They are neat"!
> 
> For the beginner, the typical part to choose would be the 16C84 or 
> 16F84.  These guys have some eeprom (64 bytes) on the inside and the 
> program memory is completely flash.  Typical home-style development 
> involves "crash and burn", where the chip is pulled from the target 
> board, reprogrammed (takes about 20 secs) and reinserted for a try.  
> This part also has an on-board timer, interrupts, watchdog, low power 
> sleep mode, 13 i/o lines (any combo of input/output), anti-pilfer code 
> protection, in-circuit programming and other stuff like that.
> 
> The assembly language is a bit cryptic, but not bad for a person already 
> experienced in that particular art.  All instructions (except for 
> branches) execute in exactly 1 clock cycle.  "C" and/or BASIC 
> development systems are available but I don't know where.  You can clock 
> the little beggars up to (I think) 10-20 Megahertz.  Not bad for a $6 
> part!  Digikey sell them too.
> 
> Anyone out there using any decent in-circuit emulators, other than 
> microchip's $3000 Pro-Mate system?  I'm looking for something to help me 
> develop for other non-flash parts, and I hate the UV-erase technique...  
> There was some sort of ICE-PIC box - which would supposedly let you 
> program and run in-circuit at realtime clock rates.  Anyone seen or 
> using one of these systems?
> 
> Of course the Atmel AVRs are rather equivalent and fully flash... :)
> 
> Thanks.
> -Bill
> 
> 
> 
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