Steve Anderson wrote:I mentioned before, I used to have bucket-loads of them, but as time went on I realised they were as good as useless...so in the bin they went. That was probably 25 years ago!
Going back to your posting, there are 'One-Time Prorammable' versions. Exactly the same as the EPROMs mentioned above, but no quartz window, once programmed there's no way to erase them. Once you have proven code and a marketable device/product you should never need to change the code. So these devices were used in mass production. The absence of the quartz window made them far cheaper for manufacturers, it was quite an expensive operation to include it...and of course the devices didn't self-erase when exposed to sunlight.
Steve A.
Harry Dalek wrote:I am a hoarder can't bring my self to chuck those ics in the bin its always just in case you better not
Steve Anderson wrote:Harry Dalek wrote:I am a hoarder can't bring my self to chuck those ics in the bin its always just in case you better not
OK, a couple of questions...have you got a UV eraser? Have you got an EPROM programmer? Do you want to spend money or barter/trade them with something? There'll be many gathering dust on peoples shelves for sure. A lot of the hobbyist versions required something like a BBC-B computer to interface to. Though RS232 versions with DOS based software were the majority...
And of course you're limited by the small amount of memory EPROMs possess. I can't imagine anyone proposing using EPROMs these days, but possibly someone might...they're also quite slow compared to current memory chips...
I'm not putting a 'downer' on them. they were good in their time, but honestly that time has long passed..
Steve A.
It raises an interesting question. I'm interested in valve/tube technology, it's so different to Silicon. Will anyone, say in 30 years time, look at EPROMs the same way? The problem is what will be different in 30 years time? One heck of a lot for sure...but I doubt I'll be around to witness it!
Steve Anderson wrote:You put the devices to be erased in the front drawer, set the timer........and waited....some even made a 'ding' sound, much like an egg-timer, to let you know it was 'cooked'!
Once programmed you covered the window with some sticky opaque tape, otherwise sunlight with its UV content would slowly (weeks/months) erase the device. Maybe not much of a problem in the UK!
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