The PIC16F876 has a Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (USART) which allows us to send and receive information over a serial channel. In the past, we would have used a MAX232 device to connect the 5 volt RX and TX signals of the micro to the +-12 volt RS232 signals used by the comm port on a PC. PicWiser uses the USB connection for serial communications.

The classic C introduction program is to write a program that prints "Hello World!" on the display device. Since PicWiser doesn't have a display, the serial channel is used and we'll use the PC as the display. Add the following functions to a file called serial.c as they are developed. Also add the necessary function prototypes and #defines to serial.h.