Interfacing PIC Microcontrollers

2

PIC Software

The PIC microcontroller architecture has been introduced in Chapter 1, so we

now turn to the software, or firmware, as it should more accurately be known,

since it is stored in non-volatile memory. The source code is written on a PC

host using a text editor, or the edit window in MPLAB (the standard develop-

ment system), assembled and downloaded to the chip. The entry-level develop-

ment system hardware normally used until recently is shown in Figure 2.1 (a).

It consists of a host PC and programming unit, connected via a serial link.

The PC is running MPLAB, and when the program has been written and

assembled, it is downloaded by placing ...