Difference between 16F84 and 16F84A

[Keiou]

can somebody tell me the difference between the PIC 16F84 and 16F84A. And which one of the 2 is better for newbies in PICs.

 

[StupidDum]

not much difference. 84A has extra comparator. The way the code is programmed is different. Some older PICSTART plus may not support A series

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

can somebody tell me the difference between the PIC 16F84 and 16F84A. And which one of the 2 is better for newbies in PICs.

There's a migration document on MicroChip's website at http://www.microchip.com/download/lit/migrat/30072b.pdf.

There's hardly any difference (but it will run at 20MHz rather than just 10MHz), it's basically just a later silicon revision, StupidDum looks to be mistaken about the 84A having a comparator, there's no mention of it in the migration sheet or datasheet.

Perhaps he's thinking of the 16F628?, this is essentially the replacement for the 16F84 and 16F84A - it has more facilities, is cheaper, and is a pin for pin replacement for them (the only code change required is to turn off it's comparators - if you don't need them).

This was why I picked the 16F628 for my PIC tutorials - internal oscillator (makes it easier to use), 16 available I/O pins (on an 18 pin chip), easily programmed.

For a beginner, use the 16F628 - check my PIC tutorials (complete with hardware designs) at **broken link removed** or http://www.winpicprog.co.uk (when the web forwarding service is working.