9.1 Address Spaces
Unlike the 8- and 16-bit PIC devices, the PIC32 has a unified programming model. PIC32 devices provide a single 32-bit wide address space for all code, data, peripherals and Configuration bits.
Memory regions within this single address space are designated for different purposes; for example, as memory for instruction code or memory for data. Internally the device uses separate buses(1) to access the instructions and data in these regions, thus allowing for parallel access. The terms program memory and data memory, which are used on the 8- and 16-bit PIC devices, are still relevant on PIC32 devices, but the smaller parts implement these in different address spaces.
All addresses used by the CPU within the device are virtual addresses. These are mapped to physical addresses by the system control processor.
1
The device can be considered a Harvard architecture in terms of its internal bus arrangement.