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... One of the most important features of PIC microcontrollers (and many other types of microcontrollers) is the ability to protect the programme within the device from being copied. This is done by setting the code protection bits in the configuration memory. If a code protected PIC is read the data is shown as all zeros and if the configuration is reset to be without code protection the whole programme memory is erased ...
"PIC Code Protection & Security"
**broken link removed**
Hi,
Code protection means, as the name states, protecting your code.
Once you program and burn hex file into PIC, it is possible to read the hex file with the programmer and then use that to burn another PIC. But if the PIC is "code protected"(set using the configuration bits), it is no longer possible to read the hex file from the PIC and use it on another PIC.
Suppose, you have spent hours developing a program for commercial application and you burn it into a PIC. Unless the PIC is code protected, any one buying your product can take a PIC and read the hex file and just use that to program other PICs and he can make business with that, taking advantage of your developed code. But once you set the code-protection bits, no one can read the hex file from the PIC and your code is now "safe".
Hope this helped.
Tahmid.
Before you start a development you want to look into the specific documentation of the chip you intend to use. The statement "every microcontroller" has code protection is not quite correct. From own experience I used the early LPC2106 from Philips and while that is a real microcontroller, it did not offer code protection.
Later published devices from Philips added this feature though.
The smaller the micro and the smaller the code, the more important is code protection. A large program needs much more time to re-engineer and will not be stolen as easily as a small program.
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