But just before you rush out and do it, you must understand that a PIC12c508A chip can only be burnt ONCE because the cells holding the program receive a charge during programming and this charge cannot be removed. The chip is guaranteed to hold a program for many years and so you only use one when you are completely satisfied with a program and the whole project is finalised. 
That's a long way down the track and so all our experimenting and programming is done with a PIC16F84 chip. This is a larger version of the '508A and fortunately nearly all the features of the '508A can be found in the '84. This means we can treat the '84 like a 508A and use the registers and input/output pins that correspond to the '508A code written into the '84 can be loaded into a '508A and it can be put in a project. 
Why do we do this?
Because the '508A is much cheaper than the '84 and you can make a very small cheap project.  We also do it because the '84 can be programmed and erased over 1,000 times and this saves us wasting  chips. We can do all our programming in a single '84 and put the successful program to a '508A  and the project is done!
This has never been done before. 
We have seen lots of projects designed around a '508A but the only way to get the program up-and-running is to buy a window-version of the chip @$15 each! You will need at least 6 of these and each chip takes 20 minutes to erase! This slows you down enormously when you are actually getting the program operational, so we had to find a better way!
We did it with our "Pseudo-'508A" and you will learn a lot more about this later. 
As you will read in the chapters, the course is entirely PRACTICAL and it gets you into programming at the least expense.
Because of this we have not used any of the "STAMP" concepts as they are very expensive and reduce the capability of the chip enormously.
Our aim is to get you into programming so you can produce microcontroller projects and sell programmed chips for as little as $5.00 each (in large quantities). This is something that has never been aimed-at before.
That's what stands our course out from everything else. By the same token I am not decrying (knocking) any of the PIC user groups or any of the producers of low-cost programmers as you will be needing assistance from these sources, once you get the "bug" for programming.  All these other groups have an enormously valuable input to understanding PIC programming and the only thing you have to remember is the concept of programming via a Library of Routines and using the '84 as a development tool for simple '508A projects. 
All sorts of help is available at the "top-end."  It's the starting point that is lacking. No-one has started at SQUARE ZERO! and guided the beginner. Standing back, as an educator for the past 20 years, I can see this and if you agree, you will be fascinated with the approach we have taken.
It's not the conventional approach as this would involve lots of new terms and complications. It's the SIMPLE APPROACH and once you master the art of putting a program together you can add to your skills with information from other sites.
The two chips we have concentrated on are the PIC12C508A and PIC16F84 as these will allow you to get into creating projects equivalent to 6 or 8 chips (or even more in the old technology of gates and counters etc) and produce things such as electronic locks using a card as access, security tags that transmit up to a metre or so, displays, games, telephone devices, alarms, interfacing devices, oscillators, robotics and lots more. As one programmer said: "You will never use a 555 again!" Any of the ideas and projects that have already been produced on and for an "interpreter-type" module can now be created in a single chip and produced at less than 1/4 of the cost. 
Surprisingly, our course will have enormous appeal to those already programming with one of these expensive modules. Quite often an idea will come up that is suitable for marketing. That's when the project will have to be converted to a much cheaper design to make it marketable. And that's where we step in. For the cost of a chip, a $5.00 prototyping PC board, a set of programming disks and books, you will be able to launch your own product. But obviously you will have to start at the beginning and familiarize yourself with the code and capabilities of the chip. 
All the programming, instructions and circuit diagrams are contained in a set of two books. They are called: PIC Projects - 1 and PIC Projects - 2. 
We had so many pages on programming and projects, we had to put them into two books. You will need both books to get the full set of details on programming and at the same time you get a wide range of projects designed around both the PIC12c508A and PIC16F84. 
The projects start from a simple use of the '508A and increase to using its full memory. Other projects use the 'F84 and they highlight the capabilities of a microcontroller. 
All the programming is "linear" (very simple) and by going through each documented line you will be able to see exactly what is being done at each step. 
The biggest problem with the STAMP concept is the cost of duplication. The first prototype may cost $40 to $70 but additional copies will cost more than $20. With our approach a fully programmed chip will be able to be sold by you for $5.00 to $8.00 (they cost as lost as $2 in large quantities), and an assembled PC board for less than $12.00. This gives you a head-start in the world of marketing and makes you competitive in manufacturing and selling your ideas.
Many will say the "STAMP concept" gets a program up and running with very few instructions but we have combated this by designing a set of routines to perform many of the operations you will require in the development of a program and placed them in a LIBRARY OF ROUTINES. 
This file is supplied on one of the programming disks in the course and you can down-load any of the sub-routines you require for your program. In this way you can get a program up and running with very little effort. The advantage of our approach is the micro runs at full speed, the program memory space can be fully utilized, no additional chips are required to store the program and all the input-output lines of the chip are available. There is really no comparison between the two concepts and the differences will not be mentioned again. 
The biggest advantage of doing things our way is you are fully in charge of the program. If something doesn't work, you don't have to wonder if the routine provided by the "STAMP or CLONE" is not doing the operation, or if your code has a bug. By directly using the micro's instructions (from the set of 33 instructions) you can see exactly what is happening and why it's not working.  
As you will notice, we are presenting the pages of the course on the web to give you an idea of the content of the books. Many of the diagrams cannot be reproduced due to them being in a format that does not convert to a .jpg or .gif file. It's a pity but if you want the complete version of the course you will need to buy the books. They cost $10.00 each plus $6.00 each for postage. Simply send us an 
  E-mail and we will reply. 
I know you will buy the books in the finish because the printed word is the most efficient way to present information. You can peruse a book much faster than looking at a screen and the books are such a valuable reference that we refer to them all the time!
While your books are being sent to you through the post, you can refer to the chapters we have prepared on the web. Only about 60% of each book will be presented on the web due to the memory it occupies. New chapters are being added all the time, so bookmark us and keep re-visiting.