Joseph Smith wrote:
I think I am going to name this project the "LPCflasher". So I added up all the stuff I ordered to build it and it only came to $17.87. Yah, that's what I am talking about, a excellent bios development tool for under $20 dollars :-)
Corey Osgood wrote:
So let me get this straight...you're building a tool to flash LPC/FWH using a connection over the parallel port, with the ability to use USB power? This sounds familiar:
http://www.mcumall.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=31 99
I used a Willem programmer for my LinuxBIOS port to the Nvidia CK8-04 (nForce 4) CRB over three years ago. The Willem programmer cost about US $40 full retail back then. Willem has gone through numerous board versions. It worked great 3 years ago, although the debug cycle was almost 5 minutes, since I did an erase chip, followed by a write with verify. Although somewhat slow it is very reliable.
The Willem contains a set of 12 dip switches which must be set for the device being programmed. The included program shows a clear diagram of the dip settings for each supported device, so programming a part is trivial, but not fool proof.
The software for the Willem is MS Windows only. I never tried using Wine or Codeweavers' CrossOver Linux with it. Native Linux support for the Willem programmers would be nice though.
The Willem family of programmers support a wide range of devices, and although the overlap is very broad, not all versions support exactly the same set of devices. So make the Willem programmer you buy supports the device you plan to program. Each Willem contains numerous programming ports which vary based on the Willem board version, so quite often an adapter is not required (assuming you buy the correct Willem board version).
I'm not sure that reimplementing a Willem programmer would be a worthwhile commercial effort. The Willem can program a very long list of different devices. I'm not sure that anyone could match its broad support of various programmable devices for under US $40.
Sincerely,
Ken Fuchs