4.15 Viewing Device Memory (including Configuration Bits)

MPLAB X IDE has flexible, abstracted memory windows that provide a customizable view of differing types of device memory. Select Window > Target Memory Views to see a list of device-specific memory windows.

For example, to view the Flash memory:

  1. Put a breakpoint at this line of code: if (counter < THRESHOLD).
  2. Click the Debug Project icon
    . When the code starts to run, quickly press and release the button on the evaluation board. The code will halt at the breakpoint.
  3. Select Window > Target Memory Views > Program Memory.
  4. The Program Memory window will open showing the last halt location.
    Figure 4-23. Memory Window Content at Breakpoint Halt

To set Memory window options, right click in the Memory window to pop up a menu with various options such as display options, fill memory, table import/export, and output to file. The content of the menu depends on the window. See 14 MPLAB X IDE Windows and Dialogs.

Figure 4-24. Memory Context Menu

To refresh some windows, a read of device memory is needed. For AVR devices, the Configuration Bits memory window needs to be read before it can be edited.

  1. Click the Finish Debugger Session icon
    .
  2. Click on the Read Device Memory icon, either on the window (see image below) or the toolbar (
    ). In the context of this window, it is Read Configuration Bits.
  3. Once memory has been read, the red text will change to black.