The PIC family are microcontrollers designed by Microchip, for a long time among the most widespread in the world, programmed in C with the MPLAB X IDE and the XC compilers. It is a classic of embedded work, still very much present in industry and in teaching thanks to its enormous installed base, but in decline for new designs, displaced by the STM32 (and by ARM Cortex-M parts in general) on the industrial side, and by the Arduino in a school setting. This page places it in the landscape. It does not teach it (see below for why).
A classic in decline
For decades the PIC was a default choice in embedded work, above all in its 8-bit versions (PIC16, PIC18): robust, available in very large volumes, thoroughly documented, with a mature industrial ecosystem. It is still found in countless products.
Two shifts have nonetheless pushed it to the margins for new projects:
- in industry, the ARM Cortex-M parts (the STM32 leading the way) offer more performance and more peripherals in the same package, modern tooling and a unified ecosystem, which has moved the majority of new designs across to them;
- in school, the Arduino (and the ESP32) wins on accessibility: immediate hands-on start, an enormous community, libraries in abundance, and no dedicated programmer to plan for.
What it is, technically
The PIC spans several families according to core width: 8-bit (PIC10/12/16/18), 16-bit (PIC24, and dsPIC for signal processing) and 32-bit (PIC32). They are programmed in C in MPLAB X with the matching XC compiler (XC8/XC16/XC32), and flashed with a Microchip programmer (the PICkit range). Unlike the ESP32, the Teensy or the STM32 (through STM32duino), the PIC has no native Arduino core in common use. The ecosystem stays Microchip’s own.
A detail that lights up the landscape: Microchip bought Atmel in 2016. The PIC and the AVR that sits in the Arduino Uno have therefore come from the same manufacturer for about ten years, two historically competing families now maintained under the same roof.
Where you still meet it
- Maintaining existing systems (legacy) — a great deal of equipment in service runs on PIC parts;
- Very large-volume production — where a stable part number and long-term availability come first;
- Skills already in place — a team trained on MPLAB may stay with PIC out of continuity.
For your projects
This wiki does not cover the PIC as a module: your school projects will lean on the Arduino (accessibility) or the STM32 (performance, closeness to industry). Knowing that the PIC exists is enough to read the landscape — to know that an older product may contain one, and to understand why the choice goes elsewhere today. Choosing a family for a project is done from the microcontroller hub, through a decision matrix.
See also
- Microcontroller — parent hub: overview of the families and selection guide
- STM32 — what took the PIC’s place in industry (ARM Cortex-M)
- Arduino — what replaced it in a school setting
- Decision matrix — the tool for choosing a controller during concept