Not a dsPIC!

28. July 2008 by pilot.

The last two days of the Masters ‘08 have been such a rush that I could not possibly find the time to write any more postings during the day, and I was too exhausted, once back home, to write the night. For two days I was on duty in the “ask the experts” area behind the PIC32 table playing with a few demos derived from the last few chapters of the book(s). I met with so many PIC users/enthusiasts that I cannot possibly write about all of them and their projects/ideas. Perhaps the funniest things that happened though is when one of them, (a veteran of several Masters) after checking out a few colorful PIC32 graphic demos, lying on the table in front of me, had a sudden epiphany, looked up and with eyes of stupor and a wide smile exclaimed: “But… it is not a dsPIC!”

It had never dawned on me that someone could have had this (wrong) impression. It is true, the official marketing campaign of the PIC32 talks a lot about pin-out and software compatibility with Microchip 16-bit architecture (although when you look closely it is the PIC24F and in particular the GA0 series that all the documentation keeps referring to). Not to mention that the part number being “surrounded” by the dsPIC30 and the (ill named) dsPIC33 can further confuse the matter.

Once I reassured him that the PIC32 was a very simple, general purpose, 32-bit microcontroller that just happened to run C code very fast, I saw him sigh with relief. He grabbed a copy of the brochure and disappeared rapidly in the crowd heading toward the development tools counter.

Did you happen to think the same? Let me know, because we certainly never meant it to be!

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