EEPROM burners (was Re: [SunRescue] Bootroms)

[Dave McGuire]

On January 14, Matthew Haas wrote:
> Since we're on the subject of EEPROM burners... I happen to have gotten
> one for christmas... it came with an 8-bit ISA card containing a 25-pin
> parallel port (but specifically stated it was NOT parallel).. and of
> course the DOS software on 5.25" floppies..
> 
> Are there any resources/software out there pertaining to the usage of
> EEPROM burners under UNIX? I'd prefer Open Source software as I'd be
> running it off of Linux/SPARC or NetBSD/OpenBSD SPARC machines, probably
> my LX.

  Heh...good luck.  I've been looking for something like that for the
better part of ten years.  There are LOTS of cheap ISA-bus EPROM
programmers out there that are controlled by DOS or WinDoze software.
Over the years I've contacted the manufacturers of at least eight of
them to try to get them to release the programming information to me.
I even offered to sign an NDA and give any Unix software I wrote back
to them, and still they refused.  They all stuck to the "that
information is proprietary!" bullshit line, like it's some Big
Secret.  What is it with suits and Big Secrets?  I guess it makes them
feel important or something.

  Anyway...This went on and on so I just did without an EPROM programmer
until about a year ago, when I said "screw it" and bought a Data I/O
2900 programming system.  It's *gorgeous*.  It programs about a
thousand different chips of every sort one can imagine, in dozens of
different types of chip packages ranging from standard DIPs to 144-pin
QFPs to 8-pin SOICs.  It cost me a small fortune...but I can connect
it to an ASCII terminal and run it without any silly PeeCee or silly
WinDoze software.  The 2900 has a floppy drive; I can even just dump
files onto a floppy (PeeCee format; mtools are my friends!) and burn
'em from there.

  So, from my experience, the ISA-bus programmers tie you to their
proprietary DOS or WinDoze software, so one must find a good unit that
has a serial port.  These types of programmers are more expensive than
the "plug it into your PeeCee!" ones, but are well worth it, IMO.

             -Dave McGuire