MPLab X IDE

About

MPLAB X IDE is an expandable, highly configurable integrated development environment for discovering, configuring, developing, debugging and qualifying embedded designs for Microchip's microcontrollers and digital signal controllers. It works with the MPLAB development ecosystem of software and tools, many of which are free. The macOS version is supported on computers with Intel 64 or AMD 64-bit processors, or Arm-based Apple silicon.

Features highlighted on the site include I/O View, which shows a register overview of the target device and lets you view and manipulate pin states during debugging, and Data Visualizer, which displays real-time streaming data. It also offers one-click access to data sheet content as online context help for selected registers on select devices, a single action button to make, program, and debug or run, and a Call Graph that shows a static call tree and can be exported as a PNG. The IDE includes the MPLAB Integrated Programming Environment (IPE) for production programming.

Microchip recommends MPLAB for VS Code for new and existing projects. MPLAB X IDE v6.20 is the last version supporting the PICkit 3, MPLAB ICD 3 and MPLAB REAL ICE tools, and the site recommends upgrading to PICkit 5, ICD 5 or ICE 4 for newer features. The current macOS release is version 6.35.