3.1 8-bit Microchip Microcontroller Hosts

This chapter describes in detail on installing the necessary tool chain, plugins, component dependencies, and Device Family Pack (DFP). Additionally, it includes detailed instructions on running cloned applications using MPLAB® X IDE. MCC Melody, MCC Classic and MCC Harmony are various content types supported in MCC. Each provides user configuration of different settings and generates code in the MPLAB X project. MCC Melody provides Libraries, Drivers, Peripheral Libraries (PLIB) and Hardware Initializers (HWI) for the development of embedded software for Microchip PIC® and AVR® Microcontrollers (MCUs) and dsPIC® Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs). These components are customized via a graphical configuration tool, generating highly efficient C code.

The low-level Peripheral Libraries (PLIBs) are simple functions to initialize and control peripherals and basic device features. The System drivers enable the configuration of general functionality, often used by other peripherals, such as Pins, Interrupts and the System Clock. Drivers depend on PLIBs and abstract the hardware details away from Libraries and applications. Libraries use drivers and system services for device independence, and they provide support for networking, USB, cryptography, and other capabilities often required by today’s embedded applications.