IC 508A

The diagram below shows the pin assignments.

Basically a microcontroller is capable of storing and running a program. It takes instructions or data from the program, and/or external sources, and outputs it to devices to create a result. It can effectively take the place of one or even hundreds of simple integrated circuits and components.
This makes a microcontroller project much simpler in appearance than the project it is replacing. The program can even be designed to perform mathematical or analytical calculations and come up with a fast answer and in this way it can appear to have intelligence.
The simplest microcontroller in the PIC range is the PIC12C508A. It is an 8-pin device with 5 input/output lines plus one input-only line. The other two pins are for the positive rail (+5v) and 0v rail (also called the negative rail or ground).

They are the PIC12C508A and PIC16F84. The initials PIC are generally assumed to mean Programmable Interface Controller. PIC chips have become known as the Programmers Dream. They are easy to work with and all the technical information needed to understand their operation has been made available FREE on the web and backed by groups of PIC enthusiasts, all over the world. But the information is very scattered and disjointed and some of it is hard to access. We have brought a lot of the information together and presented in a way that can be understood by a beginning hobbyist.

The Microcontroller

This course contains all the information you need to get a project off the ground. But before you start on the road to development, there are few preliminary things that need covering:

IC Microchip
The PIC12C508A has an inbuilt oscillator and so no other components are required to get it operational.