I've been thinking about the PIC Designer idea, and have come up with a
rough design proposal for it.

There were two issues that didn't seem to have been adequately discussed:=


1. I get the impression that the people pushing for a wide variety of
included peripherals were expecting them to be permanently connected to
specific PIC pins.  I see that as a disaster - it forces people to
compromise their designs to fit this common pinout.  For example, if a te=
xt
LCD is included and is connected to Port B, but I want to use the Port B
interrupt features for something incompatible with that connection, then
the LCD becomes utterly useless to me.

2. I don't recall seeing any discussion about oscillator options.  Again,=

if the device forces an oscillator choice on the user, it unnecessarily
limits what can be designed with it.  And don't forget about the possibil=
ty
of an external oscillator on Timer1 of many PICs...

Here's a block diagram of my proposed design:
        http://pobox.com/~JasonHarper/PICDesigner.gif

Here's an artist's misconception about what it would look like:
        http://pobox.com/~JasonHarper/PICDesigner.jpg

Features:
* Should support every DIP PIC in existance, even the parallel-programmed=

16C5x ones.
* Computer interface via serial and optional USB ports.  The serial port
can be switched to be driven by the target PIC instead of the Designer
itself.
* No pinout decisions are forced on the user - all peripheral connections=

are made via a breadboard.
* Oscillators (both main and Timer1) are plug-in modules for unlimited
flexibility.
* Includes a logic monitor/stimulator covering all of Ports A, B, and C. =

This will largely eliminate the need for individual LEDs and switches for=

basic I/O.  (Some people have been referring to this feature as a "logic
analyzer", but the performance will be nowhere near the level needed to
justify that name.)
        Jason Harper

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