Help on a 1998 Award BIOS chip

[CuriousMarc]

And lifting the sticker reveals the BIOS chip is just a W29C020P-12, a
regular 256k x 8 Flash memory, 5V chip. Duh. Mystery solved. Of course way
newer and with many more address lines than my DataIO 29B can read and
program. Time has come to buy a small, modern, cheap, infinitely capable
Chinesium EEPROM programmer. Read: the kind of practical, affordable,
sensical and useful equipment I usually steer away from. Ebay here I come.
Or make a programmer with an Arduino, since it's 5V.

What about the TL866 that Dave at EEVBlog likes? Does it have a PLCC
adapter? Anyone has another recommendation? 

Marc  

-----Original Message-----
From: Curious Marc [mailto:curiousmarc3 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 16, 2018 12:52 PM
To: Glen Slick; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Help on a 1998 Award BIOS chip

Glen,

I think I wasn't thinking straight late last night when I finally found the
chip was bad... I usually don't work on stuff that "new", so I was
unfamiliar with the PLCC 32 format and have nothing to program it. I bet the
reference of what chip it is hides just under the label! Assuming this is a
run-off-the-mill EPROM chip, one should indeed be able to copy it with a
semi-recent EPROM programmer (i.e., not mine...). Now, if it's one of these
fancy Intel "Firmware Hubs" with copy protection, I am probably hosed. But I
doubt it since there is an appropriately archaic CMOS settings chip next to
it, so hopefully it is just a traditional ROM in a fancy package.

BTW to take a look at that bios, you have to take the plastic back off, then
the metal cage back off, then the strip with the serial connectors off, then
the power supply off. It's 15 minutes work and 16 screws...

In Dolch we trust.

Marc

> On Apr 16, 2018, at 10:09 AM, Glen Slick via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> Surely you must have a PLCC capable device programmer hidden away
> somewhere in your not so secret basement lab. And if you don't have
> one, why haven't you built one up from an HP-85 and some GPIO
> adapters?
> 
> I also have a PAC 65. I'll have to open it up and take a look. Wish
> there weren't so many screws involved. Whatever that 32-pin PLCC part
> is I should be able to read its contents with my BP Microsystems
> BP-1610 device programmer. I could program a new one if I had some of
> the same part on hand.
> 
> -Glen