This is the common question that what are the advantages of PIC 18 Series over PIC 16 series ? Why should we use PIC 18 rather PIC 16 ? Those question’s answer will be cleared if we know similarity and dissimilarity between both.
Lets start, the PIC 18 Series  micro-controllers dramatically enhance the PIC core by making it suitable for advanced embedded projects. Despite many features which are new, it has been designed to make upwards migration from a 16 Series device easy. So that the designer making this move will find many things which are familiar. Now to know the main advantages of PIC 18, in bellow i give some point which is similar and new advantages in pic 18 over pic 16.
Advantages of PIC 18 Series over PIC 16 series
Similar to 16 Series
- RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), pipelined, 8-bit CPU, with single Working (W) and Status registers.
- Many peripherals identical or very similar.
- Similar packages and pin-outs.
- Many Special Function Register (SFR) and bit names unchanged.
- All but one of the 16 Series instructions are part of the 18 Series instruction set.
- Instruction cycle made up of four oscillator cycles.
New for 18 Series
- In 18 series set of instructions more than doubled, with 16-bit instruction word.
- Enhanced Status register.
- Hardware 8 × 8 multiply.
- More external interrupts.
- Two prioritized interrupt vectors.
- Radically different approach to memory structures, with increased memory size.
- Enhanced address generation for program and data memory.
- Bigger Stack, with some user access and control.
- Phase-locked loop (PLL) clock generator.
