can PIC be used for computation?

pic16f math coprocessor

PIC seems to be used mainly for control, can it be used for computation to realize some algorithm?

pic +um-fpu

yes it can.
and i think more faster then 8086 processor

um-fpu

Hmmm...
PIC16 has only addition and substraction instructions. PIC18 has a hardware multiplier. But none of them has division. Maybe dsPIC has. So division must be implemented in software and could take many cycles of execution.
Anyway, if you have big computations, I don't advise to use PIC.

pic division

There is a small math coprocessor you can use with your project. It's actually a dsPIC30Fxxx inside and yes the dsPIC has many advanced functions and it's pretty easy to divide on a dsPIC (or an 18F for that matter)
**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**
uM-FPU V3.1 Key Features

* New for V3.1:
o Busy/Ready Status on OUT1 pin
o SEROUT / SERIN instructions for serial data transfer & GPS (NMEA) inputs
o WRBLK for transferring 32 bit values from microcontroller to uM-FPU
o RDBLK for transferring 32 bit values from uM-FPU to microcontroller
o MOP instructions (for matrix operations)
o STRBYTE for storing the lower 8 bits of register 0 to string buffer
o STRINC for incrementing the string selection point
o STRDEC for decrementing the string selection point
o RET,cc for conditiona return from user-defined functions
o READVAR offers two new values for retrieval
o SETSTATUS
o Auto-Start Function Call for setting chip behavior on reset
* 10 to 20 times faster than uM-FPU V2 for all floating point operations
* Up to 70 times faster for advanced instructions
* 256 byte instruction buffer
* 128 general purpose 32-bit registers for storing floating point or long integer values
* 8 temporary 32-bit registers to support parentheses in calculations
* 2048 bytes Flash memory for user-defined functions
* 1024 bytes EEPROM for data storage or user-defined functions
* Supports 2.7V, 3.3V and 5V supply voltage
* I2C compatible interface up to 400 kHz
* SPI compatible interface up to 15 MHz
* Expanded instruction set, matrix operations, A/D conversion, string handling[/url]

um-fpu v2

yes i concern pic datasheet about this matter there is no mul or div mnemonics in pic :S
thx for letting me know friend

can it be used for computation to realize some algorithm?

Click to expand...

The answer absolutely depends on required computation speed, which isn't mentioned in your question, but actually make's the difference.

Yes, a PIC can be used for complex computations, e. g. multidimensional controllers, sensor linearization, digital signal processing, but at low or moderate speed for the said reasons. Furthermore, some complex calculations could overstretch PIC memory capacity.

No, a PIC can't be used for computations at higher speed or which large amount of data.