Thus spake Robert Zeff (rzeff@AINET.COM):

> concerned about a programmer, but an in In Circuit Emulator.  Actually, a
> fast machine wouldn't cause a timing problem.  And there's no reason why
> a serial port would work better than a parallel port except that interrupt
> driven serial drivers already exist for NT.

Many device programmers (not just PIC programmers) that interface via the
 parallel
port use timing loops (or whatever) on the PC to time the programming pulses.
 This
is not possible on NT, since the pre-emptive multi-tasking can mean that after
setting a bit high, your program gets suspended for an indeterminate period of
time.

Any programmer that will work properly under NT must have some intelligence in
the actual programmer hardware, to do the timing.

Emulators like the PICMaster should be able to to be made to work, but
require a device driver, as mentioned. Unless the software is rewritten to
access the device driver directly, it is also necessary to write a
virtual device driver that will trap the 16 bit program's attempts to access
the real hardware, and translate this into calls to the kernel device
driver.

I believe Microchip have initiated some moves to do this for the PICMaster,
but what the schedule for this is I have no idea. I wouldn't suggest
holding your breath (you'll turn blue and pass out :-) Oh, and don't
run with scissors, either :-)


--
Clyde Smith-Stubbs    | HI-TECH Software,       | Voice: +61 7 3354 2411
clyde@htsoft.com      | P.O. Box 103, Alderley, | Fax:   +61 7 3354 2422
http://www.htsoft.com | QLD, 4051, AUSTRALIA.   |
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