Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 21:20:10 -0400
From: "Andrew Lynch"
I have an old EPROM programmer for the PC. It uses an
8 bit ISA card
labeled "MCT-EPROM". JDR used to sell these in the 1980's for 24 & 28
pin
Whenever I start the MOD-EPROM software it says it
cannot find the
controller board. It is looking for a device a 0x2A0 but apparently
can't find it. The software does NOT allow the IO address to be
changed and there are no configuration jumpers on the controller board.
The ISA controller board installed in 486sx (25 MHz)
but the software
could not find it. I tried with a P3 (450 MHz) and got the same
result.
I've got one of these--actually a no-name, but the same Taiwanese
unit. At one time, I think these were also sold under the "Sunshine"
name. You could get them with different "heads"--anywhere from a
single ZIF socket to 8 or so; maybe even 16. I have the 4-socket
version.
You've answered your own query. This board is strictly 5150/5160/XT
clone territory. IIRC, even a PC AT doesn't work--at least with the
software that I have (I haven't tried JDR's). I believe that this is
due to many CPU-based timing loops. I remember patching the code to
detect the board so it would run in a 386/20, only to have it fail to
program EPROMs, whereupon I gave up and stuck it back in the XT,
there to stay until the present.
This forms the basis of my suspicion that CPU loops are used
exclusively for timing--not a really bad idea back when the world was
filled with 8088 systems. Certainly, it wasn't alone in this
respect.
Get that 5160 going and you should be fine. I suspect though, that
you're faced with a chicken-and-egg situtation--you need to get the
EPROM burner going so you can get the 5160 running.
Source code for the programming software should make things easier to
modify for faster machines, but I suspect that it's unobtainium.
Disassembling is another option, but not one that I'm interested in,
as I have a parallel-port driven programmer that can still handle the
older EPROMs just fine.
Cheers,
Chuck