>> The programming spec data sheet for the part (PIC18F2320) clearly says
>> 4.5V for bulk erase.
> 
> Right.  This is well known and hardly a new revelation.

To developers of PIC programming hardware, sure.  Everyone else?

I bought an ICD2 to not have to deal with the details of how they are 
programmed.

>> How does one do normal development in a 3.3V system?
> 
> You design this capability in up front.  ICSP can be very nice and useful
> and usually not hard to design in, but it can be very difficult to retrofit
> a design where it was not considered.
> 
> I remember hearing a military consultant say something like "amateurs start
> by talking about strategy, but the professionals start with logistics".  I
> think there is something similar in electronics: The professionals start
> with the power supply.

So a means of switching the PIC's Vdd (and only the PIC, not everything 
else on the 3.3V bus) to 5V must be part of the design?  So this means 
some pcb space must be used for any design that could ever need to be 
erased and re-programmed?  At least easily cuttable traces.  Or .1" 
header with a jumper to 5V or 3.3V.  This seems completely ridiculous.

I'm just real real suprised that in 2.5 years of PIC work I've never 
seen this mentioned in any microchip literature or any ICSP-howto design.

I'm thinking back to other < 5V designs, there have been a couple, and 
this has never come up.  But I was using a F452 and a F1320, not the 
F2320.  Maybe the other ones can erased @ 3.3V; maybe sometimes it works 
@ 3.3V and sometimes it doesn't and I've been lucky until now.

Another 3 hours wasted...
J

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