Robert Rolf wrote:
> They obsoleted the ICD1 for no apparent reason.

You mean other than it's obsolete?

> They dynamically change the firmware in the ICD2 when chosen chip
> family or mode (debug/program) is changed, so there is no reason why
> they couldn't do the same thing for the ICD1 if they really needed to.

There may well be a good reason.  The ICD1 is very old.  It's quite
possible, even likely, that it doesn't have a flash part inside.  If I
remember right, it's at least as old as the Picstart+ which used a 17C44
inside.

> How many thousands of ICD1's were obsoleted when MPLAB 6 came out?

None, because nobody took away MPLAB 5.  The old versions of MPLAB and the
ICD1 continue to do everything they previously did.  Microchip made a
decision that the ICD1 wasn't up to the task of handling the newer chips,
and USB capability was long overdue anyway.

> Unfortunately their simulator does NOT emulate serial ports

It was my understanding it did, although I haven't tried to use that feature
yet.

I only use MPLAB for debugging.  While it's got its share of annoyances, it
is constantly improving and is a very effective tool for getting the job
done.  I particularly like how the simulator, the ICD2, the ICE2000 and the
ICE4000 have the same debugging interface despite the vastly different
underlying structure.


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