The LPC Memory Emulator

THE first emulator for LPC Memories. PromICE supports BIOS development on AMD legacy-free PCs. The LPC Memory Emulator speeds up BIOS development by eliminating the constant reprogramming of LPC memories.

LPC Supports all LPC and FWH chips in PLCC32 or SMT Packages. Look for details on LPC instruction page.

The PromICE Memory Emulator

As a developer of embedded systems, you need development tools that are powerful, flexible and most of all, affordable. PromICE provides a wider range of  download options, third-party debugging support and target connectivity than any other tool.  Simply put, PromICE is the best investment you can make in embedded development tools. It is the embedded developer's tool of choice.

Visit the PromICE Support Page for target connection cables, adapters and SMT probes.
SMT sockets available on romtools.com.

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.