[LinuxBIOS] Nifty device for SPI chips

Richard Smith smithbone at gmail.com
Mon Apr 30 16:54:31 CEST 2007


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.

-- 
Richard A. Smith
smithbone at gmail.com





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