Re: getting started with uProcesors

tempus fugit wrote:

Hey all;

I've been noticing a few posts here and there that refer to PICs and other
uProcessors, and was thinking about experimenting a bit with them.


They're fun, though there's a bit of a learning curve.

How do you program the uP?


You write a program, compile it to machine code,
then send the code to the uP via the programmer.
Apply power to the uP and your code runs.

Are the components expensive?


The chips can be $2 or less for a good learner model.
The programming hardware can be $20-30 to build your
own. A commercial all-in-one hardware/software IDE
can be $80-300.

> What do you need to get started?

You need:
- a hardware programmer device (commercial or homebrew)
it connects to your computer via USB/serial/parport,
and you plug your micro into it.
- a code compiler (commercial, shareware or freeware)
- a micro (of course)

There are probably hundreds of code editors/compilers
and IDE's available online. C, Assembly Language and
Basic are the most popular 'human-readable' languages
for uP's.

There are schematics for programmer modules online if
you want to build it yourself, but you could encounter
compatibility problems mixing Joe's Ultimate Compiler
with Steve's Universal Programmer. YMMV.

Me, I chickened out and went commercial; I got the
PicKit II from MicroChip. It had the hardware, micro,
software AND lots of tutorials and sample programs
(Assembly). Easy to install, hooks up to a USB port on
my Windows box. I'm sure others will recommend other
packages for other micros.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: What will many cores mean to future Windows releases?
    ... Obviously the hardware might be indeterminant --that would be the normal 'cross-platform' use case. ... But I would rather see an inline operation or compiler switches that would allow you to set or monitor the operations without a JIT compile each time the process ran. ... VMs have their purposes, but optimization is better determined at coding time when you know where the code is going to be deployed, rather than leaving it to be determined at runtime. ... The run time then chooses the algorithm and number of processors to devote to the task, so it's rather like an SQL 'ORDER BY' clause--the programmer specifies what the results need to look like, and the implementation details--being fairly mechanical once the business logic is understood--are handled by the compiler and runtime. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: hardware errors, do C and Forth need different things in hardware?
    ... do what the comment says or it is a bug that *always* needs fixing ... maybe even needing hardware traps?" ... Any functioning C compiler will generate code that does exactly what it says. ... Your code is clearly a bug in *some* cases, but since C can't tell if this is a bug or the actual intent of the programmer, C will faithfully compile the code to do what the programmer wants-- just like Forth. ...
    (comp.lang.forth)
  • Re: [EGN] Hoisting Loop Invariants (Was: Re: [EGN] Numerical Accuracy)
    ... compiler out there somewhere that did as you claim. ... > the programmer has this knowledge, then the programmer should not use ... >> string in a loop, regardless of the blatant inefficiency of doing so. ...
    (comp.programming)
  • Re: The Philosophy of Programming?
    ... A compiler is free to ... >>is to allocate on entry to almost any block. ... > int foo{ ... But any programmer who wants to be more than a coder prefers, I think, ...
    (comp.programming)
  • Re: Brian Kernighan, maybe Im not worthy, maybe Im scum
    ... what experienced programmers do, ... the compiler doesn't have the free pass to /assume/ that the function ... Nobody has recommended doing all optimization by hand to my knowledge. ... Compiler behavior in optimization simply has no place in a language ...
    (comp.programming)