Overview

The 32-Bit language tools consist of a compiler (pic32-gcc.exe), an assembler (pic32-as.exe), a linker (pic32-ld.exe), and an archiver/ librarian (pic32-ar.exe). Additional tools distributed with this release include a binary to Intel[intl] Hex converter (pic32-bin2hex.exe) and miscellaneous binary utilities (pic32-strip.exe, pic32-strings.exe, pic32-readelf.exe, etc).

As described in the user's guides, all of the language tools are sensitive to case on the command-line, including the case of file names. In particular, the C compiler shell (pic30-gcc) requires that C source files be named on the command-line with a lower-case .c extension. If an upper-case .C filename extension is used, the compiler assumes that the file is a C++ file, which is not supported.

GNU General Public License

The MPLAB^® C Compiler for PIC32 MCUs tools are written and distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) which means that its source code is freely distributed and available to the public.

The source for the tools under the GNU GPL may be downloaded separately from the Microchip WWW web page. You may read the GNU GPL in the file named COPYING located the docs subdirectory of your install directory. A general discussion of principles underlying the GPL may be found at www.gnu.org/copyleft.

Support code provided for the header files, linker scripts, and runtime libraries are proprietary code and not covered under the GPL. See the full MPLAB^® C Compiler for PIC32 MCUs License Agreement for details.

Devices Supported

The following PIC32MX devices are supported:
New items in green.

The PIC32MXGENERIC device is, as its name implies, a non-specific target that can be used to represent a generic core device.

Installation

If using MPLAB IDE, be sure to install MPLAB IDE v8.00 or later before installing these tools.

To install the MPLAB^® C Compiler for PIC32 MCUs tools, perform the following steps:

1. Locate the setup program on the MPLAB^® C Compiler for PIC32 MCUs CD ROM.
2. Run the setup program.
3. Follow the directions on the screen.
4. If the installation program indicates that it is necessary, reboot your computer to complete the installation.
5. When the installation is complete, verify that the executable directory has been correctly added to your PATH (i.e., if you chose to install the tools in the default directory, c:\Program Files\Microchip\MPLAB C32, then ensure that c:\Program Files\Microchip\MPLAB C32\bin has been added to your PATH).

   From a DOS prompt, type: c:\>PATH

Compiler Documentation

The following documents pertain to the MPLAB^® C Compiler for PIC32 MCUs. They may be installed as part of the full product or downloaded from Microchip's Web-site:

• MPLAB^® C32 C Compiler User's Guide (DS51686A)
• MPLAB^® C32 C Compiler Libraries (DS51685A)
• PIC32 Peripheral Libraries for MPLAB^® C32 Compiler    New Update!

Migration Issues

The following changes may affect migration from older versions of the compiler.

Migrating to Version v1.02

• Processor Header files
  • Removed Extended Mode (XM bit) in DMA controller
• Peripheral Library - See the PIC32 Peripheral Libraries for MPLAB C32 Compiler document for details
  
  • DMA Extended mode is removed. The maximum transfer length is now 256 bytes, even for memory copy and CRC functions.
  • Symbols DMA_OPEN_NORM and DMA_OPEN_EXT used in the DmaChnOpen() call were removed. A new symbol, DMA_OPEN_DEFAULT was added.
    
  • A new function, DmaGetMaxTcferSize() was added, to return the maximum supported size of a transfer, variant dependent. Right now, only 256 bytes transfer size supported.
    
  • DmaChnSetExtTxfer() was removed, no longer relevant.
    
  • DMA_CTL_EXT_EN was removed from the low level access routines
  • SYSTEMConfig() function was added to enable user-specified configuration for a given system frequency.

Fixed Issues

The following issues have been resolved in this release

C32-119:

Pipeline interlock in ISR handling

C32-141:

Large malloc() calls generate a general exception vector instead of returning a NULL pointer.

C32-144:

Interrupt code does not set nomips16

C32-145:

Include C startup code source in standard distribution

C32-151:

IPL7 prologue code sets incorrect bits in status register

C32-153:

#pragma config sets wrong value

Limitations

The current limitations are as follows.

Assembler

None reported.

Compiler

C32-064:

-Os -mips16 cannot correctly process a routine with a large number of common subexpressions.

C32-118:

No available method to place code at General Exception Vector 0xBFC00180.

Customer Support

Microchip provides online support via our home page at:
http://www.microchip.com

Technical support is available through the web site at:
http://support.microchip.com

A forum for discussion of Microchip products and tools is available at:
http://forum.microchip.com