Using ChatGPT to write program-space optimized source-code

This work presents an exploratory study of how ChatGPT, the AI assistant developed by OpenAI, can support engineers in developing C and ASM code for low-cost, memory-constrained microcontrollers (PIC10F200). We evaluated ChatGPT’s ability to assist with writing the source code and found that it demonstrated to deliver faster results with competitive performance levels for C language, in almost ready-to-run programs, provided that the specific timings and resource allocation is performed by an optimizing compiler. In ASM however, ChatGPT was barely adequate, its performance being lower than average young engineers, despite intensive help received from an experienced human programmer.