Linking is the last phase in making a program which will run on our PIC microcontroller. The linker is a the part of the compiler toolchain which will "link" together all the compiled code into raw binary data the PIC microcontroller can execute.
The linker stage normally spits out a report of the amount of memory your code will consume on the specified target microcontroller device.
Memory is broken down into several sections:
- Program space - Memory in which your program is stored ready to be executed.
- Data space - Memory in which your data variables exist, gets reset every time the device is powered down.
- EEPROM space - Memory available to store data variables which will be retained during a power down.
- Configuration Bits - Some basic settings to tell the device how to startup and run.
- ID Location Space - Memory available to store unique IDs or other user data to help detect the version of firmware etc.
The next thing that you do want to do is get your freshly linked program sent into your PICmicro.
