Comments on: Wanted: An EPROM Programmer that Works on a Mac http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555 Sun, 08 Dec 2024 17:19:24 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Josh Myer http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555&cpage=1#comment-30835 Josh Myer Fri, 28 Dec 2012 20:13:00 +0000 http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555#comment-30835 http://quinndunki.com/blondihacks/?p=708 Quinn Dunki has built a ROM emulator for her 6502 computer project (Veronica). Not sure if it's big enough for what you have in mind, but it's a good start. http://quinndunki.com/blondihacks/?p=708 Quinn Dunki has built a ROM emulator for her 6502 computer project (Veronica). Not sure if it’s big enough for what you have in mind, but it’s a good start.

]]> By: Keith Neufeld http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555&cpage=1#comment-30834 Keith Neufeld Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:31:04 +0000 http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555#comment-30834 David, I'm heading out to storage to check whether the 8K of ROM (6K of program and 2K of fonts and graphics) can be fit into a single socket or what the maximum ROM size is per socket. (I know it's flexible; just don't know how flexible.) <em>If</em> the game can run with the whole ROM in a single socket, then it's trivial to build an EPROM emulator using EEPROM, a largish ATmega (or insert your favorite microcontroller here), some tristating bus buffer ICs, and a USB-serial chip. Which is definitely the way I'd like to go during development, except I'm afraid the sockets are going to max out at 2K or 4K EPROMs and I'll need to populate multiples to make things work. Yes, I could make a daughterboard that spanned multiple sockets. May do. But that starts being pretty specific to the one game. David, I’m heading out to storage to check whether the 8K of ROM (6K of program and 2K of fonts and graphics) can be fit into a single socket or what the maximum ROM size is per socket. (I know it’s flexible; just don’t know how flexible.)

If the game can run with the whole ROM in a single socket, then it’s trivial to build an EPROM emulator using EEPROM, a largish ATmega (or insert your favorite microcontroller here), some tristating bus buffer ICs, and a USB-serial chip. Which is definitely the way I’d like to go during development, except I’m afraid the sockets are going to max out at 2K or 4K EPROMs and I’ll need to populate multiples to make things work.

Yes, I could make a daughterboard that spanned multiple sockets. May do. But that starts being pretty specific to the one game.

]]> By: Keith Neufeld http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555&cpage=1#comment-30833 Keith Neufeld Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:26:47 +0000 http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555#comment-30833 Jeremiah, that's certainly a practical approach. Psychologically, though, I'm pretty sure I need the reinforcement of the thrill of making the real hardware do what I tell it to do. Using emulation might be a good choice for development cycles later in the project -- spin a few times in the emulator, upload to the hardware, iterate. But especially up front, I'm pretty sure I want to work with the hardare. Jeremiah, that’s certainly a practical approach. Psychologically, though, I’m pretty sure I need the reinforcement of the thrill of making the real hardware do what I tell it to do. Using emulation might be a good choice for development cycles later in the project — spin a few times in the emulator, upload to the hardware, iterate. But especially up front, I’m pretty sure I want to work with the hardare.

]]> By: David http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555&cpage=1#comment-30832 David Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:21:43 +0000 http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555#comment-30832 How big is the EEPROM you need to emulate? A FPGA development boardshould be able to emulate an EEPROM pretty easily. http://www.latticesemi.com/products/developmenthardware/developmentkits/machxo2picokit.cfm or http://www.em.avnet.com/en-us/design/drc/Pages/Xilinx-Spartan-6-FPGA-LX9-MicroBoard.aspx Handy little tool that works with flashrom. http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate How big is the EEPROM you need to emulate?
A FPGA development boardshould be able to emulate an EEPROM pretty easily.
http://www.latticesemi.com/products/developmenthardware/developmentkits/machxo2picokit.cfm
or
http://www.em.avnet.com/en-us/design/drc/Pages/Xilinx-Spartan-6-FPGA-LX9-MicroBoard.aspx

Handy little tool that works with flashrom.
http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/Bus_Pirate

]]> By: jeremiah http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555&cpage=1#comment-30831 jeremiah Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:14:41 +0000 http://www.neufeld.newton.ks.us/electronics/?p=1555#comment-30831 This is what emulators are for. The Asteroids hardware is pretty perfectly emulated, IIRC. Actual hardware would be ideal, though, certainly. This is what emulators are for. The Asteroids hardware is pretty perfectly emulated, IIRC.

Actual hardware would be ideal, though, certainly.

]]>