I`m wondering how to get the most speed out of an MCU, in particular a PIC16c5x type, but I think this applies to some AVR chips too as I`v encountered similar.
with these chips you can set a fusebit for either RC timing or use a Crystal instead, I`ll be using a Crystal for my projects.
when you burn these chips you set the Fuse bits to tell it not only what type of oscillator you want but also what frequency it`ll be at, Nothing unusual there.
my problem is that the IDE I use to program these chips has a lowest setting of 1mS for the delay, I want to use this Delay function as a tone generator, but at 1mS the highest tone is 1KHz.
these chips will take a Max clock frq of 4MHz, so I`m wondering, if I set the fuse bit to think it`s working on 1MHz and put a 4MHz crystal in, will I get a 4 fold increase in speed from the timer, and thus a 4KHz frequency out?
I know the chip itself if easily capable of toggling a bit at a rate much higher than 4K, so would my false overclocking idea work, or would I need to do something else?
I use the word "overclocking" cautiously, because it`s not Technically overclocking as the chip is meant to run at 4MHz anyway.
would it trick the timers prescaler?