> it isn't blatantly obvious which 4 pins the 40-pin chip is missing Because the 44 has extra Vdd and Vss and a couple of NC > On my board, the Vss pin of the 887 will be hardwired to 5 V... > but will I need this to be a higher voltage for programming it? Vss should be substantially lower than 5V. More like 0V in fact. Vdd / Vcc is 5V -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist