Super E-Burner / hardware
From: Michael Current (aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 08/25/92-08:27:17 PM Z
From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Subject: Super E-Burner / hardware
Date: Tue Aug 25 20:27:17 1992
Reprinted from Atari Interface, Vol. 4, June 1992
CSS Super E-Burner for the Atari 8-bit
--------------
A First Impression
Barry Gordon (ACCESS)
I was overwhelmed with excitement the day the UPS man delivered the
box from Computer Software Services. I had very good reason to be.
After all, I had recently ordered one of their most technically oriented
devices, the "Super E_Burner." This device reads and programs
(E)rasable (P)rogrammable (R)ead (O)nly (M)emory or EPROMs for short.
Whoa! That's jumping in a bit too fast. How about we take a few
steps back and run over some basic concepts first? OK, here goes...
ROMs vs EPROMs
Inside your computer is a ROM (Read Only Memory) chip which holds
the instructions that tell your computer what it is and how to operate.
This Operating System chip (OS ROM) is a permanent component which does
not need energy to maintain its data integrity. In other words, it
doesn't go blank when the power is removed like a RAM chip.
The OS ROM chip is programmed with instructions when it is
manufactured, and those instructions cannot be changed at a later time.
An EPROM chip also retains its programming when power is removed,
however, its programming can be changed.
An EPROM has a small window in the center of the top side of the
chip. Erasing an EPROM is done by simply exposing this window to a high
intensity ultraviolet light (Don't ask how, or we'll be here all day
talking about transistor gate depletion levels and photo-electron
velocities). But programming (commonly called "burning") and EPROM chip
requires a special device. Enter the Super E-Burner.
Let's Get Physical
I had never seen a picture, nor heard a description of the physical
aspects of the Super E-Burner. All I knew was that it plugged into the
cartridge port of the Atari 8-bit computer and was incredibly fast.
After tearing the shipping box open, I pulled out a rather odd-
looking device. The main unit of the Super E-Burner is a 5"x5" PC board
which holds one power connection, four IC chips, 48 miscellaneous
electronic parts, one 34-pin port and one ZIF socket.
What's a ZIF socket? Well, it stands for (Z)ero (I)nsertion
(F)orce. It's an expensive socket that puts no pressure on the pins of
an inserted chip. The socket has a small lever on its side. After
placing a chip in the socket, pressing the lever down causes a metal
plate in each hole to clamp down on the pins, thus making a solid
electrical contact. Coming off the 34-pin port is a two foot ribbon
cable that connects to the cartridge interface board. This board
resembles a disassembled game cartridge, and is used in a similar
manner.
Using the E-Burner
Despite the rather sparse and inadequate documentation which
accompanies the Super E-Burner, operating the device is quite simple.
The cartridge interface board plugs into the cartridge port and you then
boot your computer with your favorite DOS. (For reasons unknown to
myself and Bob Puff, this device does not work properly with SpartaDOS
X). Upon entering the cartridge via a DOS command, the following menu
screen appears:
+-------------------------------------+
| CO:01 NU:00 File: |
| Prom:0 Loc:00000 Write:00 Read:00 |
| Type: Retries:0000 Speed:1 |
+-------------------------------------+
| The SUPER-E BURNER 0.7 |
| By: Robert Puff (C) 1991 by CSS |
| |
| [A] 2732 25V |
| [B] 2732A 21V |
| [C] 2764 21V |
| [D] 2764A 12V |
| [E] 27128 21V |
| [F] 27128A 12V |
| [G] 27256 12V |
| [H] 27512 12V |
| [I] 27C101 12V |
| [J] 27C301 12V (or mask ROM) |
| |
| Select PROM type > |
+-------------------------------------+
From this menu, the EPROM size and programming voltage is entered.
On this subject, the docs say nothing more than "Select the proper EPROM
type. An incorrect selection of types can damage your EPROM."
I recommend you find some other references to help determine the
proper setting.
Once the EPROM type is chosen, the main menu is presented:
+-------------------------------------+
| Select Operation: |
|[R] Read EPROM [B] Burn EPROM |
|[V] Verify EPROM [E] Verify erase |
|[N] # of copies [Q] quit to DOS |
|[S] Change speed [ESC] New PROM size|
|[1-9] Disk directories |
| |
|Please Select > |
+-------------------------------------+
Although these menu selections are basically self explanatory,
we'll run through them quickly. [R]ead copies the information from a
programmed EPROM onto a disk file. [B]urn writes information from a
disk file onto a blank EPROM. [V]erify compares information on a
programmed EPROM to a disk file. [E]rase checks to make sure an EPROM
is blank. [N]umber sets the number of EPROMs to be burned from a single
disk file. [Q]uit exits to DOS. [S]peed alters the programming speed
for older and slower EPROMs. [ESC] goes back to the previous menu.
Documentation Details?
Four stapled pages accompany the Super E-Burner consisting of a
title page, a warranty page, a VERY oversimplified page of instructions
and a page showing the orientation of different sized chips in the ZIF
socket. I immediately called CSS and asked Bob Puff, "Is this it!?" He
assured me they would be revising the documentation soon and talked me
through the necessary concepts and instructions.
Within the documentation, a handwritten notes says that CSS is
working on a built-in editor which will support XE memory. This would
make the Super E-Burner one of the most powerful firmware devices I've
seen. A ROM chip could be read, disassembled, modified, and rewritten
without loading up any other programs. Bob said the revised
documentation would be included with the enhanced editor.
Observations
Now that I've had the Super E-Burner for about a month, I find
myself rather comfortable with it. I have managed to backup every
single ROM chip in the house onto my hard drive. That's over thirty
chips including nine different Operating Systems for my 8-bit!
But the real fun of owning an EPROM burner is in firmware
modifications. By disassembling, modifying and rewriting parts of ROM
code, I've managed to make my 130XE run in high speed mode with my US
Doubler drives, regardless of what disk/DOS I boot; I've made a stock
1050, US Doubler 1050 and an XF551 all respond to drive numbers higher
than D4:; and I'm working on modifying my SpartaDOS X cartridge to use
the standard SIO vector so it will work with a Multiplexer.
All things considered, I am very impressed with the Super E-Burner.
It is a well built, extremely fast, and (so far) reliable unit. In my
opinion, it is well worth the price (which as of this writing, is
$169.95 + $8 S/H). Kudos to Bob Puff and the gang at CSS!
--
Michael Current, Cleveland Free-Net 8-bit Atari SIGOp -->> go atari <<--
The Cleveland Free-Net Atari SIG is the Central Atari Information Network
Internet: currentm@carleton.edu / UUCP: ...!umn-cs!ccnfld!currentm
BITNET: currentm%carleton.edu@{interbit} / Cleveland Free-Net: aa700
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