EEPROM burners (was Re: [SunRescue] Bootroms)

[Tim Ikeda]

Hello all:

Matthew Haas <wedge at lightlink.com> writes:[...]
>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.

I've seen designs for serial and parallel port E/EPROM programmers all
over the net and in electronics magazines (Nuts & Volts, Circuit Cellar
& etc).

Some of these programmers can run on '286s, others are programmed
in QuickBasic and so I can't think of much that would stop anyone
from adapting chip programming algorithms to a Sun box. Here's one
burner developed with 'cross platform' use in mind (but unfortunately, 
not implemented for Linux): http://www.zws.com/products/epromr3/index.html

Here's another one that works off PC serial ports:
http://www.electronic-projects.net/projects/eprom_prg2/index.shtml

Here's one URL about E/EPROM basics - A handy place to start in developing
a programmer for Sun machines:
http://www.xtronics.com/memory/how_EPROM-works.htm

Almost all the cheapo, home-built burners rely on the CPU to
provide the timing for the programming pulses (voltages being handled
by the burner's hardware). If someone knows how to control the pins
on a Sun's serial or parallel port with sub-millisecond resolution,
it might not be that difficult to create a Sun burner (nice name!).

Regards,
Tim Ikeda
tikeda at sprintmail.com

PS: One commercial source for ROM programming that I've used is:
http://www.badflash.com