Hi Tony,

At 10:18 AM 9/3/99 +1000, you wrote:
>Just some musings...
>
>If the JW part is in a "box" why cover it at all? I know this is
>foolhardy, but I've had an uncovered JW working on my bench(s) for over
>a year now.

I tend to agree with you. Although, it depends on whether or not the box is
UV or visible light transparent and to what degree. I have never seen the
adverse effects of an uncovered window anyway,despite working a fair amount
with JW parts. I tend to cover it just in case.

>
>With Flash becoming more popular, is it possible that JW and windowed
>EPROM parts will soon be a thing of the past? It would certainly
>eliminate the code protect problem.

I would say that this will be true for the most part. However, I do
rememebr a thread here about some industrial standards that still do not
allow EEPROM or FLASH parts,only various ROM varieties,for fear that the
device could accidentally get re-programmed or erased.

>
>With the introduction of the abillity to change the ROM "on the fly", I
>wonder if some of the ROM space could be replaced with SRAM so you could
>make infinite runtime code changes any time, even from external uploads?

This is already the case with certain PLDs (I forget the exact variety
which has the configuration SRAM, but it does exist). I learned this the
hard way in my digital electronics lab. My partner and I had just
programmed a board containing one of these devices and I said "let's turn
it off until the instructor comes to check it out" <G>. He said, "Are you
sure?" I said, "Yes, of course" (thinking I was dealing with an EEPROM
FPGA). After we turned it off, I remembered about the SRAM. Sure enough,it
didn't work when turned back on. :-)

>
>With ever shrinking SMT parts becoming the choice of components for
>industry, will the fullfillment of being an electronics hobbiest slowly
>dissappear? There must have been some concern when valves changed to
>semiconductors, but that would have been a kindling of new interests. I
>hope the future is not just smouldering embers and thoughts of, I
>remember when...

This is one of my big concerns,and on numerous occasions I have tried to
start a thread about it here,to get other's opinions. From the response I
did get, it seemed that most people thought that although the situation
will change somewhat, there will always be sources for easily-handled
components because even industry needs to prototype. HOWEVER,in light of
the recent MAXIM samples thread, one wonders.

Sean


>
>--
>Best regards
>
>Tony
>
>http://www.picnpoke.com
>Email sales@picnpoke.com
>
|
| Sean Breheny
| Amateur Radio Callsign: KA3YXM
| Electrical Engineering Student
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