Its an old mistake, that newcomers think, they need always an ICE for efficient programming. This in untrue !

With a simulator you can solve any questions about the hardware (timers etc.) and execution time.
To program efficient, you should find out, that a C compiler do solve all questions about memory and variable management and arithmetics and this give a real kick to develop more efficient. Yes it costs some more time and space (about 10% more in average), but if this was critical on some routines you can mix assembler and C.

So you able to test algorithm in C e.g. with Borland C and all other with the simulator.

On the beginning there can be some more problems, but this can be solved with inserting some printf() for debugging.

I miss never an ICE and can remember no problem, which should be solved faster with an ICE.

Please watch, any ICE was still not the real target. E.g. power down modes or the power on behavior are points, which not right supported by an ICE.


Peter