[time-nuts] Maintaining boatanchors (was Capacitor Failures)

[Hal Murray]

> Then you hope that there's at least one floppy drive in the universe that
> will load what you *hope* is the right software for the programmer. 

If anybody ever needs a working floppy drive, I have several that that I'm 
not using.  They came in refurbished PCs.  I expect they work, but I haven't 
tested them.


> I'm having a tough enough time finding a working example of a PIC programmer
> (with socket) running around the basement here. I have found two so far that
> I believe died a long time ago .... 

There are two interesting areas with PROM programmers.  One is the hardware 
side.  Old chips used strange voltage levels and/or finicky timings.  The 
other is the software to drive them.  Another possible/likely problem is 
finding documentation for the programming recipe.  (Old was before pdf, so 
even if the manufacturer gave out the info it probably isn't on the web.)

Most modern chips are much easier to program.  You talk to them with TTL 
level signals.  (It might take a high voltage on one pin at reset time to 
kick them into programming mode.)  The timing is internal and the programming 
software is told about it at the protocol level.  So I expect a future hacker 
could program a way-old PIC as long as they can find the data sheet.  
(Admittedly, the programming recipe may be hidden off in a separate document.)

I haven't done it, but a friend/co-worker has written code to program Atmel 
AVRs and ARMs.  I'm pretty sure I could write similar code.  I'm not sure how 
long that would take.  Admittedly, he is a lot smarter than I am.  Perhaps my 
confidence level is unwarranted.  If so, I expect there is a good chance that 
somebody on this list could/would do it.



-- 
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's.  I hate spam.