I've heard (from Microchip FAE's, at a uChip seminar) of a 20MHz PIC
being clocked at 50 MHz, hand-picked, stable Vcc, and with a nice big
heat sink with heat sink grease etc.  Apparently that customer's custom
app needs the speed, and works quite well.  I wouldn't try it without
the heat sink, of course!

Wouldn't do it for a PRODUCTION part unless you plan to test many PICs &
reject those that don't do well.  Wouldn't try it with non-stable
temperatures or non-standard Vcc's.  But it can be & IS done, and can
work, if you take some care.  Not "Completely recommended".  If you
want/need 4x the speed, could switch to an Atmel or Scenix part, is
another thought.

  Mark

Aaron Martin wrote:
>
> Does anyone know if you can "overclock" a PIC?  (I remember in the olden
> days where we would push 386-33's to 384-40s and 486-66s to 486-83s)...and
> Even today, Celeron 300a can be pushed to 450mhz.  Can we do this with the
> PICs?
>         -- Aaron