Newfound Electronics <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> wrote:

> I happen to notice the latest parallax programmer firmware is in a
> 16C55/RC and uses a 4Mhz ceramic resonator.
> ....
> Impressive as it is appalling, it might give Everett something to
> consider given these programmers still actually work most of the
> time.

Jim:

The most common failure mode when you use a "/RC" PIC in the "XT"
mode is that it will immediately fail to work at all... "Infant
mortality".

If an RC PIC works for an hour in XT mode, it's likely to continue
working forever, although there may be some minor electrical issues
(increased current, reduced frequency accuracy, etc.).  Most of
these side-effects, I'd imagine, don't really affect the Parallax
programmer in any serious way.

-Andy

Andrew Warren - fastfwd@ix.netcom.com
Fast Forward Engineering, Vista, California
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2499