Microchip Technology PICkit 3 Starter Kit DV164130 DV164130 User Manual

Product codes
DV164130
Page of 98
Glossary
© 2009 Microchip Technology Inc.
DS51795A-page 73
Calibration Memory
A special function register or registers used to hold values for calibration of a PIC 
microcontroller on-board RC oscillator or other device peripherals.
Central Processing Unit
The part of a device that is responsible for fetching the correct instruction for execution, 
decoding that instruction, and then executing that instruction. When necessary, it works 
in conjunction with the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) to complete the execution of the 
instruction. It controls the program memory address bus, the data memory address 
bus, and accesses to the stack.
Clean
Under the MPLAB IDE Project menu, Clean removes all intermediary project files, such 
as object, hex and debug files, for the active project. These files are recreated from 
other files when a project is built.
COFF
Common Object File Format. An object file of this format contains machine code, 
debugging and other information.
Command Line Interface
A means of communication between a program and its user based solely on textual 
input and output.
Compiler
A program that translates a source file written in a high-level language into machine 
code.
Conditional Assembly
Assembly language code that is included or omitted based on the assembly-time value 
of a specified expression.
Conditional Compilation
The act of compiling a program fragment only if a certain constant expression, specified 
by a preprocessor directive, is true.
Configuration Bits
Special-purpose bits programmed to set PIC microcontroller modes of operation. A 
Configuration bit may or may not be preprogrammed.
Control Directives
Directives in assembly language code that cause code to be included or omitted based 
on the assembly-time value of a specified expression.
CPU
See Central Processing Unit.
Cross Reference File
A file that references a table of symbols and a list of files that references the symbol. If 
the symbol is defined, the first file listed is the location of the definition. The remaining 
files contain references to the symbol.
Data Directives
Data directives are those that control the assembler’s allocation of program or data 
memory and provide a way to refer to data items symbolically; that is, by meaningful 
names.