For my money it is the Needham's EMP-20, nearly on topic since they were introduced in 1993 :-) Its a parallel port based device and their software programs a _LOT_ of devices. Further with just the base unit you can program a lot of stuff. With three "personality" cards you can program every PIC made and nearly every ATMEL part made. There personality cards cleverly use the SIMM socket as a means for re-routing power/signals to the socket that can accommodate narrow or wide parts up to 64 pins. I also bought the 68 pin PLCC adapter to program 68HC11's. The "downside" is that their software continues to be DOS based and so my DOS PC continues its life on my workbench as primarily a tool for operating such things. (I also picked up a surplus two channel digital oscilliscope card for it at one point so that gets used now and then (b/w is 15Mhz though :-() --Chuck At 12:22 PM 8/31/00 -0600, you wrote:

At 12:22 31-08-2000 -0600, you wrote: "Best" is a highly relative term. How much do you want to spend? How complex a device do you want to be able to program? I got lucky a few years ago when I got a Data I/O 'UniSite' system. They're great units, but upkeep (software updates) are hideously expensive (around $1,200/year). That's why I always made it a point to leach a copy off friends who had access to similar systems at work. The UniSite will program back to the 2716, and just about anything that is programmable these days. It's pin-driven, so getting it to program something new is a simple (for Data I/O's programmers) matter of writing a new algorithm. For more hobbyist-friendly (read: much less expensive to maintain) units, I've heard good things about Needham's and American Reliance. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 (Extra class as of June-2K) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."