PIC 16C716 vs 16F716

[droptail]

I have always used the UV windowed "C" IC for all my developement, but when I just re-ordered a few, their price has almost doubled to $USD16. The flash chip was brought to my attention as a poss alternative. What is the diff between them?
I just looked at my epicwin chip options and didn't find the "F". Do I need to upgrade my programmer for this newer chip in order to program it? What about PBP?

[mat janssen]

I did some applications with the 16F716 and I use PBP 2.47 and there is no problem.
Regards
Mat

[droptail]

I hope its not a paid upgrade everytime a new chip comes out. I've already paid to upgrade twice to ver 2.40.

[Melanie]

Hate to tell you, but you may have to upgrade again... if you're holding PBP version 2.40 then you're about four/five years out of date... features have been added, issues fixed, and support for the 18F's added. v2.40 only really supported a small handful of 18F's. Go to the MeLabs website and look at the version history to see what you've missed out on. Most folks that use software seriously (rather than sporadically for a hobby) would upgrade once a year or every couple of years at least, and $25 every couple of years (equivallent to $1 a month) dosen't exactly break the bank if you've paid out $250 for the product to start with.

[droptail]

Melane,

You've justified why I should spend my money on perpetual upgrades, but you haven't answered my question.

Is the memory erase method (electric vs uv) the big/only diff on this comparison? Are they interchangeable, i.e. same program run on each identically?
Thanks

[skimask]

Is the memory erase method (electric vs uv) the big/only diff on this comparison? Are they interchangeable, i.e. same program run on each identically?
Thanks

The F vs. UV is the main difference, but there are all sorts of minor differences.
At the programming level, without eyeballing the datasheet's first, I would say that the two are about 99% compatible at the PBP level, 90% compatible at the assembly level, and maybe 80% at the binary level.
In short, I'd say, NO, a hex file written for C716 will NOT run on an F716, without minor changes in the source code.

[droptail]

Thanks for the help. (Cost me $43 by the way).