prom programmers on linux?

[mikebw at bilow.bilow.uu.ids.net (Mike Bilow)]

Robert Luoma wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

 RL> Has anyone used a prom programmer directly from linux?

 RL> If so, what?

 RL> Basically, what are the options (either standalone units
 RL> [how is the data transfered]) or PC based?

 RL> Vague, but I would appreciate a reply.

The Xeltek Superpro (http://www.xeltek.com) has software which runs under DOS
emulation on either Linux or OS/2 without serious trouble.  (It does think the
disk is full and refuses to write files to disk if the partition is larger than
2 GB, but that's hardly the kind of thing to blame on Linux.)

The Superpro connects using a dedicated ISA card that has an 8255 chip on it,
acting essentially as a parallel port that can be moved to a number of port
addresses with a default of 280h.  The programmer does not appear to require
any critical timing that depends upon real DOS since it has a RAM buffer.

I would think that any programmer which connected via the parallel port could
be made to work.  I'm not sure I would bother using Linux to run a programmer,
since almost every programmer I've ever seen would work on an XT under DOS.  At
that point, dedicating a machine to the programmer is reasonable.

The Superpro is a serious and expensive programmer that will burn absolutely
anything, and cheaper ones may have smaller buffers and may not work as well. 
The Superpro II is updated from my Superpro, and it comes in either the base
model which uses the dedicated ISA card or the P-suffix model which uses a
standard parallel port; I believe that the base model can also use the standard
parallel port, but you would have to check to be sure.  The Superpro/L is a
less expensive model which only uses a standard parallel port.
 
-- Mike