Richard Smith wrote:
I just got back from an extended stay in Asia and while I was there was introduced to a nifty little device for SPI flash chips. When the mfgs all switch to SPI it may actually be much easier to deal with non-socket flashes.
http://www.dediprog.com/product.php?UID=12
$275 US gets you a programmer + the hardware to hook it up to your board.
The way it works is by asserting the HOLD pin on the SPI flash which almost all SPI flash parts have. So the flash thats soldered on board is suspended and you boot from the one in the adapter.
The only requirement is to have the HOLD pin pulled up via a resistor rather than tied directly to the SPI part's Vcc. Even if it is tied directly to Vcc working around it would only involve cutting a single trace or lifting the HOLD pin.
This is what I started working on with the PLAICE project http://flash-plaice.wikispaces.com. Looks like about the same features only we add a logic analyzer to the mix for under $200.
-Bari