Re: Microprocessor question

From: gary s (gary_s_at_REMexcite.com)
Date: 10/27/04 

Date: Wed, 27 Oct 2004 17:12:45 -0500

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 09:59:56 +0000 (UTC), "Gareth Magennis"
<sound.service@btconnect.com> wrote:

>It is not beyond feasible to build a test jig for each microprocessor
>family.
>
>For example, I've been messing about learning the 8051 processor family. I
>have an EPROM / Flash programmer I bought new from ebay for about $45 which
>will program almost everything. My "Test Jig" consists of a prototyping
>breadboard into which I've plugged a simple power supply, the processor
>(with onboard flash memory), one crystal and 2 capacitors (for the clock)
>and a reset switch. You can write a trivial looping program to output a
>square wave, program the processor using your PC, use the maximum crystal
>frequency, and see if you get a square wave. For processors without onboard
>program space you can add an EPROM to the breadboard and blow that instead.
>This jig should work for all processors in the 8051 family of the same
>package (number of pins). This will indicate the processor can run a basic
>function at maximum rated speed. There could be other faults of course
>(falty onboard RAM) but it sounds like this simple test is what you need.
>
>If all this sounds too daunting, get a Microprocessor Programming book and
>spend a few evenings reading it, and you may find it's well within your own
>capability. This isn't rocket science despite appearances.

This is similar to what was suggested to me. My problem is in somehow
"generalizing" this to a superset to include 16 and 32-bit parts with
hundreds of pins.

Thanks -

Gary

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