User Guide

MPLAB

PICkit™ 4 USER’S GUIDE

 2018 Microchip Technology Inc. DS50002751C-page 11

Chapter 1. About the In-Circuit Debugger

1.1 INTRODUCTION

An overview of the MPLAB

PICkit™ 4 in-circuit debugger system is provided here.

• MPLAB PICkit 4 In-Circuit Debugger Description

• MPLAB PICkit 4 In-Circuit Debugger Advantages

• MPLAB PICkit 4 In-Circuit Debugger Components

• MPLAB PICkit 4 Block Diagram

1.2 MPLAB PICKIT 4 IN-CIRCUIT DEBUGGER DESCRIPTION

The MPLAB PICkit 4 In-Circuit Debugger (PG164140) allows fast and easy debugging

and programming of Microchip PIC

, dsPIC

flash and the CEC (ARM

Cortex

-M4-based) microcontrollers, using the powerful graphical user interface of

MPLAB X Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The MPLAB PICkit 4 is

connected to the design engineer's computer using a high-speed 2.0 USB interface

and can be connected to the target via a Microchip debug 8-pin Single In-Line (SIL)

connector. The connector uses two device I/O pins and the reset line to implement

in-circuit debugging and In-Circuit Serial Programming™ (ICSP™). An additional micro

SD card slot and the ability to be self-powered from the target means you can take your

code with you and program on the go

The MPLAB PICkit 4 programs faster than its predecessor and comes ready to support

PIC, dsPIC and CEC MCU devices. Along with a wider target voltage, the MPLAB

PICkit 4 supports advanced interfaces such as 4-wire JTAG

and Serial Wire Debug

with streaming Data Gateway

, while being backward compatible for demo boards,

headers

and target systems using 2-wire JTAG and ICSP. The MPLAB PICkit 4 also

has a unique programmer-to-go function

with the addition of a micro SD card slot to

hold project code and the ability to be powered by the target board.

The debugger system executes code like an actual device because it uses a device

with built-in emulation circuitry, instead of a special debugger chip. All available

features of a given device are accessible interactively, and can be set and modified by

the MPLAB X IDE interface.

The MPLAB PICkit 4 In-Circuit Debugger is compatible with any of these platforms:

• Microsoft Windows

7 or later

• Linux

•macOS™

1.This functionality is coming soon with a firmware update of the product through MPLAB X IDE.