Microchip Technology MA160014 Data Sheet

DS41412F-page 424

 2010-2012 Microchip Technology Inc.

The MPLAB C Compiler code development systems
are complete ANSI C compilers for Microchip’s PIC18,
PIC24 and PIC32 families of microcontrollers and the
dsPIC30 and dsPIC33 families of digital signal control-
lers. These compilers provide powerful integration
capabilities, superior code optimization and ease of
use.

For easy source level debugging, the compilers provide
symbol information that is optimized to the MPLAB IDE
debugger.

The HI-TECH C Compiler code development systems
are complete ANSI C compilers for Microchip’s PIC
family of microcontrollers and the dsPIC family of digital
signal controllers. These compilers provide powerful
integration capabilities, omniscient code generation
and ease of use.

For easy source level debugging, the compilers provide
symbol information that is optimized to the MPLAB IDE
debugger.

The compilers include a macro assembler, linker, pre-
processor, and one-step driver, and can run on multiple
platforms.

The MPASM Assembler is a full-featured, universal
macro assembler for PIC10/12/16/18 MCUs. 

The MPASM Assembler generates relocatable object
files for the MPLINK Object Linker, Intel

®

 standard HEX

files, MAP files to detail memory usage and symbol
reference, absolute LST files that contain source lines
and generated machine code and COFF files for
debugging.

The MPASM Assembler features include:

• Integration into MPLAB IDE projects

• User-defined macros to streamline 

assembly code

• Conditional assembly for multi-purpose 

source files

• Directives that allow complete control over the 

assembly process

The MPLINK Object Linker combines relocatable
objects created by the MPASM Assembler and the
MPLAB C18 C Compiler. It can link relocatable objects
from precompiled libraries, using directives from a
linker script. 

The MPLIB Object Librarian manages the creation and
modification of library files of precompiled code. When
a routine from a library is called from a source file, only
the modules that contain that routine will be linked in
with the application. This allows large libraries to be
used efficiently in many different applications. 

The object linker/library features include:

• Efficient linking of single libraries instead of many 

smaller files

• Enhanced code maintainability by grouping 

related modules together

• Flexible creation of libraries with easy module 

listing, replacement, deletion and extraction

MPLAB Assembler produces relocatable machine
code from symbolic assembly language for PIC24,
PIC32 and dsPIC devices. MPLAB C Compiler uses
the assembler to produce its object file. The assembler
generates relocatable object files that can then be
archived or linked with other relocatable object files and
archives to create an executable file. Notable features
of the assembler include:

• Support for the entire device instruction set

• Support for fixed-point and floating-point data

• Command line interface

• Rich directive set

• Flexible macro language

• MPLAB IDE compatibility