User`s guide

MPLAB

IDE

USER’S GUIDE

Chapter 16. Simulator Overview

16.1 INTRODUCTION

MPLAB SIM is a discrete-event simulator for:

• PICmicro microcontroller (MCU) families

• dsPIC Digital Signal Controller (DSC) families

The simulator is integrated into MPLAB IDE integrated development environment. The

MPLAB SIM debugging tool is designed to model operation of Microchip Technology's

MCU and DSC devices to assist in debugging software for these devices.

If you are new to MPLAB SIM, you may want to begin with the MPLAB IDE tutorial.

• Simulator Features

• Simulator Model

• Simulator Execution

16.2 SIMULATOR FEATURES

MPLAB SIM allows you to:

• Modify object code and immediately re-execute it

• Inject external stimuli to the simulated processor

• Set pin and register values at prespecified intervals

• Trace the execution of the object code

16.3 SIMULATOR MODEL

Microchip devices use Harvard architecture (separate program and data memory bus)

as opposed to Von Neumann architecture (combined program and data memory bus).

Therefore, program memory instructions are not limited to data memory lengths.

FIGURE 16-1: DEVICE ARCHITECTURE

CPU

Program

Memory

Data

Memory

Bus