Re: gEDA-user: Re: How to program PAL/GAL?

[Andy Peters <devel@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mar 14, 2007, at 4:04 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:

> On Mar 14, 2007, at 6:55 PM, John Griessen wrote:
> > >  A GAL programmer isn't difficult at all.  High-end, currently
> > > supported professional programmers (big Data I/O units come to  
> > > mind...I recently replaced my 2900 with a UniSite) are easy to  
> > > come by on eBay these days
> >
> > Does a unisite work with windows?  Generic serial port?  same  
> > question for 2900...
>
>   It's a standalone device.  Well, aside from a terminal. :)   
> That's the main reason I love these Data I/O UniFamily programmers  
> (UniSite, 2900, 3900, etc).  Also, no PC-proprietary parallel  
> ports...100% standard RS232 serial I/O.  You could run this thing  
> from a PDP-11 if you wanted to.  Windows is persona non grata here,  
> and I'm certainly not going to depend on it for something critical  
> to my work like controlling a device programmer.
>
>   You just connect an ASCII ANSI terminal (I use a VT420) or a  
> computer running a terminal emulator and interact with it  
> directly.  The user interface is very good, fast, and easy to use.   
> If you really want to, it does have a mode that you can set which  
> makes it communicate using a remote control protocol over the  
> serial port, and Data I/O has software for Windows which can  
> control the unit via that protocol.
>
>   The 2900 has a floppy drive from which it boots and loads  
> programming algorithms when you select a device.  The later models,  
> including the UniSite, optionally have a hard drive which stores  
> all of that.  My recently-acquired UniSite has a hard drive and two  
> floppy drives.  They all read and write FAT-formatted floppies.
>
>   I really can't recommend them highly enough.  I've used a bunch  
> of programming systems, and these are, by far, the best I've ever  
> seen in every regard.

We had a 2900 at my last job.  I hadn't seen one since my first job  
out of college, where I used one to program Altera MAX7192 parts.   
The magic adapter cost like $500 (in 1992 dollars).  The stupid  
floppy disk on the thing kept failing for no reason, and Data I/O  
charged boo-coo bucks to fix it.

Anyways, the 2900 at the last job.  It sat on a work table, turned  
off and collecting dust, for the entire four years of my tenure  
there.  When the New Corporate Overlords decided to close our office,  
it was one of the things I packed up and sent to the California  
office, where I'm sure it's sitting in a corner, collecting dust.

I hope I never see one of those fscking things again.

Gimme a JTAG dongle and in-system-programmable parts any day over UV- 
erasable ancient crap.

-a



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