Deepak Kotian wrote:
any O.S started on this machine, which means I would need to replace the BIOS FLASH ROM with a one with proper BIOS and bring up the machine. Is there a way I can re-program the old BIOS on to the corrupted FLASH ROMS. Please note,I do not have a PLC or any kind of FLASH programmer with me. Can I do without it. If there are any suggestions, please let me know.
Deepak,
Something you might also consider is an ROM Emulator. One that will do a larger flash is still expensive but not as expensive as a good flash/eeprom programmer. With a ROM emulator you remove the original BIOS chip and plug in the emulator. Then you download you code into the emulator. The target never knows the difference. This also saves a lot of time in the code-test-recode cycle as the emulator is usually much faster than re-flashing a chip.
Of course if your chip is soldered on the board it's not really an option.
I've done a good bit of my developemnt with a 1-Mbit ROM emulator from tech-tools called the EconoROM and a DIP to 32pin PLCC adapter. 1Mbit gets you 128k of space which will hold Linuxbios fine.
The emulator + adapter would probally run you $400-$500.
-- Richard A. Smith rsmith@bitworks.com