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Background and History
We pioneered the memory emulation field by introducing the ROMulator
in 1985. Then in 1989 we introduced the PromICE. A ROM emulator
with intelligence. The PromICE can emulate the small 24-pin and
28-pin DIP memories to 32-pin and 16-bit 40-pin and 42-pin DIP memories
as well. Then we adapted PromICE to emulate SMT devices as well.
We developed adapters for 3 volt memory systems and increased its
capacity to 4 megabytes total. Of course you could still daisy chain
them for larger configurations. With access to the PromICE also
from an Ethernet printer server, it has become the most widely used
ROM emulator; Flash emulator; memory emulator in general. With the
addition of a virtual UART (called the AI (analysis interface) option),
PromICE became a choice tool for monitor based debuggers and as
a debug print channel in many cases. Further we introduced a 32-bit
real time trace and code coverage option to the PromICE, making
it the king of low cost but very effective tool for any firmware
developer, any embedded systems programmer and BIOS developer.
Since then we have developed an LPC or FWH emulator to the list
of PromICE accomplishments. This adapter allows your PromICE to
be used to emulate a LPC or FWH type of flash memory used in mother
board BIOS chips.
PromICE has incorporated over sixty user suggested changes to the
product and has gone through seven major revisions. LoadICE is an
application that runs on PC, UNIX or LINUX systems and handles the
configuration of the PromICE units as well handles all the communication
with them. It then takes user data files and downloads them to the
PromICE. LoadICE has over seventy different commands, from doing
checksums to saving files, to configuring and operating the trace
and code coverage interfaces. For Windows system we also have a
GUI version of the PromICE.
Emulate Legacy ROMs; PROMs; UVPROMs; EEPROMs in 24-pin;
28-pin; 32-pin; 40-pin and 42-pin DIP
PromICE emulates ROM, EPROM, UVPROM, EEPROM, MROM in 24-pin DIP;
28-pin DIP; 32-pin DIP; 40-pin DIP; 42-pin DIP; 32-PLCC; Devices
with names like 2708; 2716; 2732; 27C64; 27C256; 27C512; 27C010;
27C020; 27C040’ 27C080; 27C160; 27C1024; 27C2048; 27C4096;
Emulate SMT Flash memories up to 32 megabits in size
PromICE emulates all SMT devices in TSOP-32; TSOP-40; TSOP-48;
TSOP-56; PSOP-44; SSPO-44 and BGA memories. We have adapter to adapt
PromICE to any footprint. We have flex probes that either plug into
a SMT socket or directly solder on to the SMT site. As a SMT emulator
PromICE supports; 28F010; 28F020; 28F040; 28F004; 28F008; 28F160;
28F320; 29F010; 29F020; 29F040; 29F080; 29F160; 29F320 etc.
Emulate both 5volt Flash or 3.3volt Flash memories
PromICE can emulate all 5 volt memories as well as 3 volt devices.
With our 3 volt adapter for fixed footprints or our SpiderBox adapter
for any arbitrary target memory footprint any footprint can be emulated.
The SpiderBox contains a Xilinx EPLD that can be programmed to any
footprint up to 60-pins in size.
Emulate LPC and FWH Flash memories used in motherboard
BIOS chips
With our LPC adapter system you can emulate any LPC or FWH BIOS
chip. The LPC adapter is a full featured adapter for emulation of
read functions as well as all Flash commands. We currently emulate
just about every chip out there.
PromICE/Direct for direct connection to your target system
PromICE can also be connected directly to an IDC-34 or high density
60-pin AMP connector. The IDC-34 is fine for 8 bit access up to
2 megabyte address space. The AMP-60 will allow access for up to
256 megabyte and 16-bit access. Many of our customer have placed
these connectors on their target boards for easy connection to the
emulated space.
Ethernet connection to PromICE via the print server
PromICE can be accessed remotely by attaching it to the Digi P3270
print server. This allows you to access the PromICE system from
your office computer while the setup may be in the lab; also it
lets you share your PromICE setup with other users.
AI: the virtual serial channel
The AI (analysis interface) option adds to the PromICE a virtual
serial channel where by the target software can communicate via
the ROM socket through the PromICE host ports (serial, parallel
or Ethernet socket). This can be used to connect to a ROM monitor
based debugger or directly by the user software as a debug print
channel. We support many industry standard debuggers such as Paradigm,
X-ray, and GDB etc.
Real-time trace and code coverage
The AI option also adds the 32-bit wide and 128K deep trace memory
with sophisticated start and stop control with counters etc. An
external clock input and additional external inputs (11) allow tracing
of more complex data. An external trigger allows to synchronize
with the target system via interrupt etc. The code coverage memory
has four memories that can be mapped to cover 128K locations each.
The code coverage memory writes certain (user defined) pattern to
each location accessed by the target.
Future Directions:
We are always working on new stuff in the embedded systems. Particularly
in full Flash emulation area. If you have any unique memory emulation
situation please discuss it with us. We are adapting and modifying
our tools to meet new user requirements.
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