Hello all

I am new on the list, and new to the PIC- We are soon starting a project
using the PIC16c93 and therefore I am looking for some advice regarding :

Purchase of a PIC programmer; We are currently looking at the PRO-MATE II
from Microchip - are there any third-party programmers we should consider
instead ? prisewise cheaper is better however support for the full serie of
PIC's is essential.

I have been looking at the Microchip homepage and seen references to the
windows based development environment MPLAB ? is this for free or ??

Reg the 16c93 with build in LCD driver ; Is the driver any good ? and Can we
drive a 20x4 char LCD on it ? I have tried to look in the datasheets however
for me some parts are a bit cryptic and I am therfore in the dark here.



Any help would be very much appreciated

TIA

Peter Neubert
VisionWay Ltd
Mauritius