If you have a Mac, this may interest you... It's from Jan Willem
Luiten, of Neuron Data Systems BV:

    Our company (Neuron Data Systems) does Mac-based development for
    the PIC16C84/PIC16F84. Since there was no industrial strength
    burner available that could be used with the Mac and suited our
    needs, we developed our own, together with a Mac application
    needed to drive the programmer. The burner itself is based upon
    the 16C84  and adheres to Microchips standards (i.e. the burner
    has a variable Vdd to support the verification algorithm as
    specified by Microchip). The design is capable of programming all
    serial programmable Microchip controllers, including their OTP
    versions.

    In the beginning of our development process we asked Microchip
    for the sources of their assembler, which we would have liked to
    port to the Mac (as a CodeWarrior plugin). We specifically stated
    the new product would be handed over (sources and all) to
    Microchip and we only would be entitled to use the end-product.
    No transfer of ownership, no fees for us, nothing. We just wanted
    to have a PIC assembler as a CodeWarrior plugin. Unfortunately,
    Microchip showed no interest in our proposal.

    The burner was developed to support our production process. As
    such, the application has extensive capabilities to support a
    variety of serialization and modification methods. We already
    discussed selling it as a kit. Selling pre-built units would
    require us to have the product FCC and CE certified. Since we
    trust that anyone developing HW/SW for the Microchip controllers
    would be able to assemble the kit, we think it would not be worth
    our while to have the product certified. However, responses from
    this list might indicate otherwise.

    Unfortunately for those wanting the kit, our company is on the
    brink of the introduction of two new products. Resources to work
    on the kit and the documentation are VERY limited, so it would
    take us several months to complete this.

    If you're seriously interested in this product, please let me
    know. Sufficient responses might tempt us into speeding up this
    project. However, do not expect it to become available before
    march/april 1998.

You can reach Jan at:

    janwillem.luiten@neuronsys.com

-Andy

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