>         I want to solicit opinions on the most cost effective development
> system for someone like                         myself, who:
>         1. Writes only in MChip assembly.
>         2. Would have to acquire a laptop (preferably) or a desktop system
> to serve pretty much as a
>             dedicated PIC development platform.
>         3. Has no problem putting together some kind of programming board
> compatible with the
>             assembler he winds up with.

Use the MPLAB tool set from Microchip on any 32 bit Windows platform.  The
Microchip software is completely free and includes the assembler, librarian,
linker, and IDE.  There is other freeware out there, but this is the stuff
officially supported by Microchip, so you know it will always be updated for
new chips and the like.  It also has nicely integrated support for their
programmers, in circuit debuggers, and ICEs.  It's what I use for
professional PIC development, although I did have to write wrappers around
some of their tools so I could run them from my build system.

> What are the system requirements for
> the latest version of MPLAB?

It will run on just about any Windows system since the Pleistoscene.
Fortunately the next major release will finally abandon the old 16 bit
platforms so we can have 32 bit features like long file names.  Even the new
version will supposedly run on any 32 bit Windows, which would be 95, 98,
ME, NT4, 2000.  I have run it on NT4 and am currently running it on 2000.


********************************************************************
Olin Lathrop, embedded systems consultant in Littleton Massachusetts
(978) 742-9014, olin@embedinc.com, http://www.embedinc.com

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