Customer Reviews

Microprocessors: From Assembly Language to C Using the PICI8FXX2 (Da Vinci Engineering)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Unlike other PIC books which covers on assembly language only, the assembly language + C language approach in this book is pretty good. It helps to enhance the understanding of programming PIC from low to high level.

I think this book is focusing on programming, rather than building the hardware circuitry such as button debounce, voltage regulator etc. Therefore, I would recommend this book to reader who already has knowledge in building PIC or other microcontroller circuitry. Indeed, the author covers almost all the essential functions in PIC, such as I2C, UART, timer, which I think it helps beginner who used to write in assembly language, to move on to programming in higher system level. For advanced programmer who has practiced the functions mentioned above and integrate all of them into a system, perhaps you won't find this book to help a lot.

Dissapointedly, almost all the topic covers are more toward PIC16 than PIC18 which is more powerful. I expected to learn some powerful features such as USB, TCP/IP to be run on PIC18.

One more opinion, isn't Microcontrollers a more suitable term to be used in the book title instead of Microprocessors?

I just want to clarify for anybody considering this book that the book's examples are compatible 'as is' with the Hi-Tech PICC18 compiler. The supplemental website (www.reesemicro.com) contains a ZIP archive of modified book examples that are compatible with both the Microchip MCC18 and Hi-Tech PICC18 compilers. The compiler differences are hidden in an include file, so the modified book examples that are compatible with both compilers are practically identical to the examples in the book. The reviewer below (Mr. Estrade) contacted me, and he had attempted to compile the book's original examples with the MCC18 compiler. (I am the author of this book, and unfortunately to post this I had to assign a number value for the review - so I chose a '3' since it was in the middle of the range).

This is a good book for a collage student who does not know much about the pic. This is not a good book for experimenters, it is not an easy read, but it is very detailed on it's subject matter.
If you are a beginner this book is not for you, it does not go into any detail of the code, either in assemble or C code, it does have lots of theory on machine code which I haven't used in 15 years.
This book is good for the engineering student, but there are friendlier books on the pic out there.

Reese's book explores the microprocessor, using the specific instance of the PIC18fxx2. He develops the concept of assembly programming, with plenty of examples for the reader to understand. Plus, he then takes the next step in showing the evolution of computer languages. By showing how C code can be implemented for hardware interfacing and microcontrollers.

For the hardware being interfaced to, Reese makes the standard choice of an analog to digital converter and a digital to analog converter. Some things never change. I remember in 1982 a course in microprocessors where we tackled the same problems.

The idea is for the student to get a good grasp of how software ultimately is expressed in controlling a piece of silicon. The microprocessor is a Neumann architecture. So the ideas here can be seen to apply all the way up to supercomputers that use the same architecture.

Even if the reader is intent on programming higher level tasks, the book gives good grounding in showing how code optimisation can work at the lowest level.

This is a good hard-back book. The text is very understandable and very interesting for a great price!

Whenever anyone thinks of a computer these days, something from Intel that uses the X-86 architecture comes to mind. But experience at universities have shown that while studying the X86 may be proper for a computer science major, the engineering student is more likely to be professionally involved with some other kind of processor of the microcontroller variety being used in some kind of embedded project.

As a result, this book was developed along with a microcontroller based on the PIC 18 cpu. This microcontroller is supplied as a parts kit to be used with a prototyping board. It was discovered that supplying the student with a finished PC board led him to thinking of the computer as a monolithic device. Supplying the kit of parts makes him think of the components and a more skilled engineer results.

This is a slightly different approach to teaching microprocessors that would leave the engineering student more capable of doing useful work after school.

Being a fan of the Microchip line of microcontrollers, I bought this book help my learning curve. I didn't pay enough attention to the fact that the compiler included with this book is strictly for the 18F242 chip (Microchip is apparently replacing this chip with the 18F2042?) as well as the fact the compiler is workable for only 120 days. The trouble is, if you want to continue using this compiler after expiration it'll cost you around $1000. Not very affordable.

I chose to use the student version of Microchip's compiler which is free. If you want to buy the fully optimized version it's $500, still pricey but more resonable.

Unfortunately the code for the various experiments throughout the book doesn't seem to work with Microchip's compiler- a lot of "obsolete usage" errors.

The author covers the topic pretty well but if you are a hands on experimenter as I am, you are pretty much on your own as far as writing code to make the hardware work- a much longer process without the assistance of some working examples.

they sent this book within two or three days, I really admire their shipment service