A PIC microcontroller
is a powerful microprocessor with memory and peripherals built in. That means
to say it is a fully integrated computer in an incredibly small package. They
range from the simplest six pin device which measures just 3mm x 3mm to an immensely
powerful one hundred pin device capable of running at twenty million instructions
per second!
•Typically,
a common 8 bit microcontroller has analogue to digital converters, a modem,
three independent clocks, PWM outputs, comparators and EEPROM.
•Used
in virtually all the products created by Fulcrum Designs.
•They
can be programmed using a variety of methods and the programs can be changed
or replaced entirely at will.
•High
level computer languages like C and BASIC can be used to create programs but
we favour the use of native ASSEMBLY language for it's ultimate efficiency
and speed.
•PC
based emulators are regularly used to speed up development and debugging.
•Code
writing has take between two days and two months to write but depends on the
chosen PIC and the application.
•Code
length written has varied between about two hundred and twenty thousand lines.
•DSP,
Filtering, Manchester encoding/decoding, LCD controller and radio protocols
are amongst my specialisms
