The PIC 16F877A microcontroller is used as the reference device in this book, as it contains a full range of peripherals and a reasonable memory capacity. It was also used in the previous work on interfacing, so there is continuity if the book series is taken as a complete course in PIC application development. Microcontrollers are traditionally programmed in assembly language, each type having its own syntax, which translates directly into machine code. Some students, teachers, and hobbyists may wish to skip a detailed study of assembler coding and go straight to C, which is generally simpler and more powerful
