Selecting a PIC

Links Mentioned
Digikey
APP-II

There are many different varieties of PICs that run at many frequencies. Why so many? When you design hardware, you may need a certain combination of features and this will dictate what PIC you select. For a beginner there is really only two choices:

	PIC 16F84A - An 18 pin chip. The latest version of the most popular starter PIC.
	PIC 16F87x - Some in 40 pin chips, others in 28. While it is only a few dollars more expensive, it has a plethora of features including analog to digital converters, a UART, and more.

For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll assume you are using a APP-II which is really a 16F873. The APP-II is a unique PIC that doesn't require a programmer! You simply wire it up to a TTL serial port and use any terminal program to download your program to it. The complete APP-II kit contains our RS-II RS232 adapter that makes it all work easily on a breadboard with a standard PC. You can see a picture of the APP-II above.