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PAL problems (again)

Hello from the Eighth Doctor (Apologies if this question is not group appropriate.) It seems my company's perenial problem with the PAL chips have sprouted again. The same individual that we created a something or other for, using a collection of PAL chips, and some normal glue logic wants us to make more of these things. Essentially a follow on to that thing. What it's supposed to do isn't the problem. Yet. It's the programming of the blank parts that is the problem. We've located which parts we want to use, and the PALASM software for writing the programs. But we need reccomendations on which programmer to select, and whose.

--
Gregg drwho8 atsign att dot net
"This signature disavows itself of the above message."

However we need a programmer for the little devils.
Reply to
The Eighth Doctor
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collection of

problem.

located

Some part numbers would help.. You need to look at the Programmer vendor web sites, such as eetools.com, and search their device lists. Just type the PAL part numbers into google, and it usually finds the programmer device lists, so you can work from those.

Reply to
Jim Granville

again.

collection of

problem.

located

programs.

Hello from the Eighth Doctor Part numbers? Oh right. Yes, that's a good idea, to search based on the part numbers that we have chosen for our Bill of Materials.

--
Gregg drwho8 atsign att dot net
Reply to
The Eighth Doctor

I've been happy with an Xeltek Superpro III, which is discontinued, but refurbished units are available. But I imagine that more recent Xeltek products will also do what you want. The SuperPro Z appears to be roughly equivalent to the Superpro III, and only costs $249.

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My main device programmer these days is a used Data I/O Unisite, which can program almost any programmable device that was ever made. (It can't handle the first few EPROMs made in the early 1970s, such as the 1701, 1702, 1702A, 5203, and 5204.) If you can find a used Unisite, grab it. New they cost *many* thousands of dollars, but once in a while used ones can be found for under $250.

Before you buy a programmer, check the list of supported devices to make sure it can handle the ones you need.

Reply to
Eric Smith

Hi Gregg,

Can't you convince your colleague to use something slightly more modern than a PAL? I see more and more manufacturers dropping support for PALs (great pity), and PALASM is not the most user-friendly way to develop logic or testing harnesses in.

Especially now that (s)he is going to use multiple PALs on a board (s)he might take a look at CPLDs (sort of a super-PAL), which have a larger capacity for logic and registers, plus the great majority can simply be programmed while already soldered on the board through JTAG.

I'm professionally biased towards Altera MAX devices, but there's a whole bunch of other CPLD vendors that offer JTAG programmability.

Best regards,

Ben

Reply to
Ben Twijnstra

I do agree with Ben, there are a lot of super-PALs (or CPLDs) with JTAG capabilities. On the other hand, GALs are a very good replacement for PALs and these are still available. If you chech Lattice's website, you will find some documents about programmer support for GAL's and therefore also PAL's.

Regards,

Luc

Reply to
Luc

Hello from the Eighth Doctor We did then. We did this year. No such look. The customer had heard about the wonders of PAL devices from someplace and wanted those devices. So we are sticking with them, for now at least. Fortunately our chosen supplier seems to have a good inventory at the moment. I'm probably going to contact Lattice anyway since I need to find out if they have any agents in the NYC area, who can program a few devices for me, since the programmer won't be here in time for use by us.

--
Gregg drwho8 atsign att dot net
Reply to
The Eighth Doctor

You should be able to bypass PALASM and use VHDL or Verilog for programming some PALs and GALs. Latteice appears to have the best (free) solution.

Lattice has a tool that supports their SPLDs (Simple PLDs). The link below is for the ispLEVER Starter kit, which is free. SPLD support in the free version includes 16V8, 20V8, 22V10, which will can be configured to work like almost any 16/20/22 A/R/RA PAL device.

This is probably your best choice, because:

  1. Reads and compiles ABEL, VHDL, Verilog, mixed schematic/HDL designs
  2. Has a functional simulator (although you could use ModelSim XE for that purpose)
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Urb

Luc wrote:

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Reply to
Paul Urbanus

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