- on Microcontrollers
- Published in issue 6/2003 on page 0
C Compilers for the PIC Micro
Efficiency from a higher programming language
The PIC microcontroller in its many guises is found at the heart of countless electronic projects and designs (including those from Elektor). Most software developers use brick-by-brick assembly code to write programs for the PIC. However, it is also possible to program these wonderful micros using a higher programming language like ‘C’ which rightly became an industry standard.The tremendous popularity of the C programming language is largely due to it having been designed, right from the start, for better access to the system hardware. Also, C is not a bad performer when it comes to code efficiency. These days, C allows you to develop almost anything for microcontrollers (from the smallest PIC to X-scale ‘monsters’), digital signal processors, operating system programs for Windows or Linux, right up to UNIX and mainframes, not forgetting administrative programs.