Good Things Come In Round Packages

Dec. 11, 2008

Lots of PIC programmers will want to get their hands on the MPLAB ICD 3 from Microchip (see the figure). It uses the faster USB 2.0 interface to improve chip programming times by a factor of 15. The higher-speed interface also move

William G. Wong

Lots of PIC programmers will want to get their hands on the MPLAB ICD 3 from Microchip (see the figure). It uses the faster USB 2.0 interface to improve chip programming times by a factor of 15. The higher-speed interface also moves data to and from memory quicker, providing a snappier debugging interface. This makes operations like single stepping faster.

The MPLAB integrated development environment (IDE) has been enhanced to take example of new debugging features, including support of up to 1000 software breakpoints. The incircuit debugger (ICD) comes with a PIC10F test-bed module.

This latest version of the ICD is powered by the host’s USB connection, eliminating the old power brick. It can supply a target board with up to 100 mA. Inside, a dsPIC powers the ICD 3. The MPLAB ICD 3 is available for $219.99. The MPLAB IDE is a free download.

Micorchip

About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

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I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.

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