[flashrom] Re: Questions About Flashrom Of Gsoc

[Hui Xiang]

Hi Simon,

Thank you for taking the time to respond and provide an answer.

I'm going to get a CH341A Programmer and see if I can run flashrom on it. If there are any operational guidelines for such ? Is there still any available jobs on the website (https://www.flashrom.org/Easyprojects) that I may try to complete?

Regards,
Hui

From: Buhrow, Simon 
Sent: 11 March 2022 14:29
To: Anastasia Klimchuk ; Hui Xiang ; flashrom 
Subject: AW: [flashrom] Re: Questions About Flashrom Of Gsoc

Hi Hui,
> > My current devices are a Windows 11 laptop (processor 11370H, Tiger Lake-H35) and a Mac. Is it possible for me to try out some patches on my computer? Also, could you provide me with any resources or introductions to chip packaging (DIP32, PLCC32, DIP8...)?

As it´s never a good idea to experiment with the workhorse itself, I would recommend to do tests on extra hardware. (There might be some things you can test with software dummies, someone else must tell you about that). A very cheap programmer often mentioned here is the CH341A Programmer, however there are many other affordable programmers with ftdi chips, the raspberry pi and other manufactures as well (https://www.flashrom.org/Supported_programmers).

About basics of packaging you can find on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_integrated_circuit_packaging_types . Flashrom itself typically does not care about packaging (as you can see in flashchips.c are no packaging info). That´s only important for wiring between programmer hardware and flash chip. If you have a programmer with a DIP-Socket on board, you can use any supported Flash in a DIP package (with <= pins than the socket).
> > and decided to start my job with "Find chips without voltage data." What can I do about it?

I checked the “.voltage” of the chips given in flashchips.c and I couldn´t find any chip without voltage data in flashchips.c So I think it´s obsolete. Could anyone with wr-permission correct this article? (or tell me where I´m wrong… :-) ).
> > Is it necessary for me to install an IRC client on my computer?

I think the webclient works fine so far, however there might be some benefits of having it installed locally.

Hope this helps,

Simon