Effective memory management tricks.?

mario67 · Joined: 27 Nov 2023 Posts: 2

hello CCS community!!
new here, keen to understand the strategies for when using the CCS C Compiler for PIC microcontrollers. Anyone here may assist on this, would be grateful. Thanks.!!

temtronic · Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 8:31 am

1) Buy the biggest PIC in a 'family' ! Yes, it'll be 'overkill' for 99.44% of your projects BUT you should never run out of memory or I/O pins. I settled on the then new, PIC18F46K22 in 40 pin DIP even though there's smaller version(22pin). I prefer LARGE PCB with room to grow.

2) Only use 'global' RAM if needed. That way RAM gets 'recycled' as required.

3) 'memory' comes in many types RAM, ROM, EEPROM each has tricks to using them.

4) one 'trick' I use. Seems every project has need for 'time',so I use an RTC/EEP module. The RTC has battery backed RAM( few bytes) which can be handy for when power fails.... the EEP can store tables or arrays of 'fixed data'( say text for screens, font tables or similar )

5) using a 'fprintf' subroutine / function can save a lot of space. a 'generic' print that prints all variables to LCD screen, with 'dummy data' as place holders.