MPLAB Program Memory

[TeoYX]

Hi all,


Does anyone know the MPLAB program memory can be set? I am using PIC16F877A for the MPLAB programming. However, my program show not enough memory, which i compile it and the program memory is over 100%. I did reduce and simplify my program then become 99.5%. Please see below:
Memory Summary:
Program space used 1FD3h ( 8147) of 2000h words ( 99.5%)
Data space used 99h ( 153) of 170h bytes ( 41.6%)
EEPROM space used 0h ( 0) of 100h bytes ( 0.0%)
Configuration bits used 1h ( 1) of 1h word (100.0%)
ID Location space used 0h ( 0) of 4h bytes ( 0.0%)



I wonder is this PIC16F877A has so limited memory for us to program? Does it have any setting in the MPLAB to enable the larger program memory?

Please advice if anyone know this. Thanks a lot!!!!


Best Regards,
Teo

[ABSF]

I wonder is this PIC16F877A has so limited memory for us to program? Does it have any setting in the MPLAB to enable the larger program memory?

Please advice if anyone know this. Thanks a lot!!!!

This type of questions has been asked a few times. People here tried to combined a few PRs projects and expected the limited program memories in 877A to be able to hold all the major parts of the projects. May be to you 8KW is becoming too little as your project started to become more and more complicated. That's why microchip came out with 18F, 24F and 32F and dsPIC family of chips. If that is still not enough, you can always move to uP which has unlimited external flash and SRAM.

Another way is to upgrade to a better compiler. There is no free lunch in this world as I was told. The free compiler we're using is not optimized to 100% efficiency in Lite Mode. You can always buy the PRO version of Hi-Tech C or even CCS C or mikroC which are better than Hi-Tech, I was told.

If you're a real Hacker, you can also hack the MPLAB or PICC programs and make it to believe that the 16F877A has 16KW or even 32KW program memory. It's all in the device file here:

"C:\Program Files\Microchip\MPLAB IDE\Device". Just open the "PIC16F877A.dev" file and start hacking. If you succeeded please dont forget to PM all your friends here.

[edit] I just read from somewhere:

The contents of the table of configuration bits depend on the selected device type, and on the device definition file. Only for "old" devices (PIC16F family), WinPic contains built-in configuration bit definitions. For newer chips, especially the PIC18F and dsPIC30F family, the configuration bit info should be read from one of Microchip's device definition files (*.dev). WinPic expects the DEV-files in a certain directory - see this textfile for more information. The DEV-files are Microchip's own property, and due to the MPLAB terms of use I cannot distribute them with WinPic. But you will have them on your harddisk after installing MPLAB !

So if you found out anything, please dont make it PUBLIC. It's for your own good.

Allen