>> 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.

The ICD1 firmware is indeed updatable.

> 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.

It isn't really all that old. It originally came out in support of the 
PIC16F87x

>> 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.

I am really not sure why they didn't carry ICD1 support forward to MPLAB 6. 
Maybe there is something 'messy' about it and they just figured it was a 
good way to kill it.

>> Unfortunately their simulator does NOT emulate serial ports

Yeh. I always thought this was an unfortunate limitation.


Bob Ammerman
RAm Systems

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