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IMPORTANT UPDATE (July, 2000): Due to enormous workload at my day job designing digital imaging appliances, I have been unable to work on EPROMr 3 or other personal projects since roughly May, 1999. My current plan for this project is to redesign it in a simpler form around the PIC16F84 microcontroller. Most of the listed devices will still be supported, and the control protocol will be largely similar.

Until I have more details to release, you can read the information on these pages.

The EPROMr3 is a commercial-quality intelligent EPROM/EEPROM burner project suitable for hobbyists, arcade operators, and embedded system professionals alike. Like its predecessors EPROMr 1 and EPROMr 2, the basic design of the EPROMr 3 will be low-cost and simple to construct. However, the EPROMr 3 offers huge advantages over the earlier, more primitive parallel-port programmers, and indeed over many off-the-shelf commercial programmers:

• Easy-to-use point-and-click Windows 95/98/NT and MacOS software allows novice users to get up and running quickly.
• Simple three-wire serial interface is compatible with all popular hardware platforms and operating systems.
• Comprehensive out-of-box support for 28- and 32-pin EPROM, flash and parallel EEPROM devices from 64Kbit to 8Mbit, and 8-pin serial EEPROMs from 1Kbit to 16Kbits.
• Modular design (serial interface unit connected to personality module) allows future expansion.
• Flexible hardware design allows certain future enhancements (e.g. the ability to program some microcontrollers) simply by upgrading the control software.
• Publicly documented control protocol allows third-party development of control software for other operating systems (e.g. Linux) and personality modules to allow burning other chips such as microcontrollers. It also allows you to use the serial interface module to control almost anything - robotics, household appliances, and more.
• Software can read and write binary dumps, Motorola S-record and Intel HEX format files.

	New! Read part of the control protocol specification. Sections which have yet to be finalized have been omitted.
	New! GPSI module schematic now online. Click the thumbnail above to view it at full size (recommended: print in landscape mode)

A preliminary shot of the Windows 95/98/NT version of the EPROMr software.

The GPSI board from the final candidate prototype. The personality module plugs into the 40-pin socket at right. You can just see the power cable leading from the bottom left corner and the serial cable from the upper left. From left to right, we have: RS232 interface and power regulation; microcontroller; clock generation; Vpp regulator and I/O expander ICs, Vpp switching circuit, and personality module socket.

The EPROMr 3 is expected to go out of alpha and into public beta in 1Q99. The schematics and control software will be freely available from this page. The project, however, requires a preprogrammed PIC16C74 microcontroller. The code for this device will not be released publicly. Ready-programmed, copy-protected chips will be available from zws.com for approx. USD$30 (incl. postage worldwide). For an additional USD$5, you can receive a CD-R containing the control software and a handy collection of cross-assembly and simulation tools.