[sci.electronics] JDR Microdevices Programmer

rainer@hibachi.colorado.edu (Rainer Malzbender) (04/07/90)

Wie Geht's ?

I am about to pick up the phone and order the universal programmer
from JDR, priced at $500. It does PAL's, EPROM's, etc. and also tests
some IC's. The price seems right, even though other machines might
handle more chips. Please email at once and stop me if you have had
bad experience with the unit. 

Oh yeah, can someone tell me how to get CUPL? Is it public domain ?
JDR sells a $100 mini-version, but I'd like the real thing.

My hand is reaching for the phone .....
--
Rainer M. Malzbender        rainer@hibachi.colorado.edu        (303)492-6829
Dept. of Physics            malzbender@opus.vaxf.colorado.edu
U. of Colorado, Boulder     "You are in a maze of little twisty passages."

cook@stout.atd.ucar.edu (Forrest Cook) (04/07/90)

In article <19387@boulder.Colorado.EDU> rainer@hibachi.colorado.edu (Rainer Malzbender) writes:
>Wie Geht's ?

Ja, Und Tiny Fences!

--
 ^   ^  Forrest Cook - Beware of programmers who carry screwdrivers - LB
/|\ /|\ cook@stout.atd.ucar.edu WB0RIO (This posting is an OPINION)
/|\ /|\ {husc6|rutgers|ames|gatech}!ncar!stout!cook

marks@mgse.UUCP (Mark Seiffert) (04/08/90)

In article <19387@boulder.Colorado.EDU>, rainer@hibachi.colorado.edu (Rainer Malzbender) writes:
> I am about to pick up the phone and order the universal programmer
> from JDR, priced at $500. It does PAL's, EPROM's, etc. and also tests
> some IC's. The price seems right, even though other machines might
> handle more chips. Please email at once and stop me if you have had
> bad experience with the unit. 

It seems like a nice unit, I have it in a PC/AT and when I run Xenix,
Xenix turns it on somehow. The first time I found out about this, it
had been on all nite and was quite hot.

> 
> Oh yeah, can someone tell me how to get CUPL? Is it public domain ?
> JDR sells a $100 mini-version, but I'd like the real thing.

It is a joke, i supports just those devices listed in the catalog, 
it does not support 22V10 or GALs. In the manual it lists quite a
few chips (hundreds?), but the software does not support them with
the library shipped with CUPL. I called the company, if you want
the full library, it will only cost $1500. I have also had a hard
time getting the simulation's to run correctly, I must be doing
something wrong, but have not figured it out yet.

Has anyone tried PALASM? I called AMD and they said they would send it,
but it still has not arrived. Since it is free i can't complain, but i
wonder how long they take to ship stuff. 

Does anyone know of a PAL software package that works under SCO Xenix
286. I would love to be able to design and simulate a PAL under Xenix
before I have to boot DOS and run the pal burner since other people
are usually on the machine.

> 
> My hand is reaching for the phone .....

If you want to get the library let me know and i will get the phone
number.

> --
> Rainer M. Malzbender        rainer@hibachi.colorado.edu        (303)492-6829
> Dept. of Physics            malzbender@opus.vaxf.colorado.edu
> U. of Colorado, Boulder     "You are in a maze of little twisty passages."


-- 
Mark Seiffert,  Metairie, LA.
uucp:           rex.cs.tulane.edu!mgse!marks or rex!mgse!marks
bitnet:         marks%mgse@REX.CS.TULANE.EDU
internet:       marks%mgse@rex.cs.tulane.edu

markz@ssc.UUCP (Mark Zenier) (04/09/90)

In article <1104@mgse.UUCP>, marks@mgse.UUCP (Mark Seiffert) writes:
> 
> Has anyone tried PALASM? I called AMD and they said they would send it,
> but it still has not arrived. Since it is free i can't complain, but i
> wonder how long they take to ship stuff. 

If you want to get a PALASM, but don't want to deal with a sales rep,
you can buy the Byte Magazine source code disk for January 1987.

This has a Dos executable, source code in fortran (for an older version
that the executable :-( ), and source code in BASIC for a simple version.

markz@ssc.uucp

Dick@cup.portal.com (dick a wotiz) (04/09/90)

> > I am about to pick up the phone and order the universal programmer
> > from JDR, priced at $500. It does PAL's, EPROM's, etc. and also tests
> > some IC's. The price seems right, even though other machines might
> > handle more chips. Please email at once and stop me if you have had
> > bad experience with the unit. 

I've been using one in an XT for a couple of years now.  It seems to be
reasonably built, and so far it works with all of the common EPROMS and
PALS that I've used with it.

> 
> It seems like a nice unit, I have it in a PC/AT and when I run Xenix,
> Xenix turns it on somehow. The first time I found out about this, it
> had been on all nite and was quite hot.

I also noticed mine getting warm after a while.  It appears that on power-up,
the hardware comes up in some uninitialized random state.  I found that
by running the IOCHK program that comes with the unit whenever I boot
the machine, it initializes it properly, and it no longer gets warm.

Dick Wotiz                          dick@portal.com
                            {sun|uunet}!portal!dick

nichols@eola.UCF.EDU (04/11/90)

PALASM is pretty good for a public domain program. The latest version
I know of is 2.23D; it's menu-driven (if you have enough memory), and
is pretty easy to use without documentation.

The PALASM documentation is also free. It comes in the form of two
data books: the "AMD PAL Device Handbook" and the "AMD PAL Device
Data Book." Call your local rep or distributor.

AMD also has a free program called PLPL (Programming Language for
Programmable Logic). It's a higher level language with more constructs
than PALASM, but it doesn't support as many devices.

If you're doing a lot of CAD, you may find OrCad's schematic drawing
package worthwhile ($495). I did! They also sell a package called
"OrCad PLD". I haven't tried it yet, but I would like to mainly
because it's integrated with the rest of OrCad's tools.

Another PLD design language available for free is called "PEEL"
from ICT (International CMOS Technology). ICT makes a line of
Electrically Erasable CMOS PALS that are fast and inexpensive,
with generic "superset" architectures that emulate most popular
PAL devices. Translation software for JEDEC files is included.

On PAL Programmers: I bought the ZAP-A-PAL expansion card for
PC's. It works well, but the manufacturer doesn't always
answer his phone. (The mfgr is Robert Friedman, the guy who
wrote one of the articles in BYTE's special issue on programmable
logic (Jan 87?).)

Hope this helps. Happy (fuse) blowing!

markJ
nichols@eola.ucf.edu