>However the design of PIC MCU will not allow Microchip to
>install a bootloader inside without occupying programming space.

I do not think that is correct. IIRC all processors are capable of having
the program counter go higher than the highest memory location (i.e. there
is at least one extra bit in the PC than required for the Flash memory
supplied). It surprised me to find that the 10F chips are done like this.

>Moreover many customers will not need the bootloader.
>And there are many bootloaders out there.

Well I suspect that if a standard bootloader was available in every chip off
the shelf, then more people than currently do would use it. The reason there
are so many bootloaders available is there is no standard.

The Freescale bootloader seems to have made a reasonable job of occupying
only one pin and still give bi-directional communication, along with debug
capabilities. But it also has other things tightly integrated to the chip,
such as what cannot be used in its facilities when the chip has the Flash
Memory protected. I have looked at only the HCS12 family, but it appears to
severely limit the instructions available when chip protection is set.

-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist