This application note describes the implementation of various digital filters using the PIC17C42, the first member of Microchip’s 2nd generation of 8-bit microcontrollers. The PIC17C42 is a very high speed 8-bit microcontroller with an instruction cycle time of 250 ns (@ 16 MHz input clock). Even though the PIC17C42 is an 8-bit device, it’s high speed and efficient instruction set allows implementation of digital filters for practical applications. Traditionally digital filters have been implemented using expensive Digital Signal Processors (DSPs). In a system the DSP is normally a slave processor being controlled by either an 8-bit or 16-bit microcontroller. Where sampling rates are not high (especially in mechanical control systems), a single chip solution is possible using the PIC17C42.