Introduction

An alternative to using the 'real' hardware would be the use of an emulator, that is a program running on what maybe radically different hardware that 'pretends' or emulates the target hardware at whatever level the writer deems appropriate. As the emulator is a software implementation additional facilities maybe included so that in effect a virtual development system can be created.

Development systems actually running a real PIC16F84 executing the target code with facilities to single step instructions, arrange for trap's and modify the RAM. As well as decoding the target program into assembler mnemonics are available at a price. The route taken has been to produce a purely software solution, taking the form of an emulator, that is a program running on different hardware than the target but providing all the functionality of the target. As it is a software solution some of the functions that would be provided by a Logic Analyser would be included in the emulator program.



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