I suspect the motivating factors behind programming algorithms involve
internal testing channels (ways to verify the chip's integrity). When a
chip is changed in a significant way internally, the programming
algorithm will probably change as well.

I don't think Microchip cares about programming at all, as long as it
can be done in some manner.

BUT, I also see YOUR side of it. Microchip should warn you 3rd Party
Folks weeks in advance that a new spec is coming, and provide you with a
"test chip" to test it on.

--Bob

Ken Pergola wrote:
> No matter how easy it will become to maintain a third party device
> programmer, it truly is a never-ending project that still requires a lot of
> energy for a one-man operation. It is very difficult to anticipate how new
> programming specifications will differ from existing ones and they, like
> everything else in this world, change over time. Then if you want to
> automate testing  someone has to spend the time to develop those automated
> tests -- it's a lot of work. But like I said before it's also fun and
> rewarding.
>
> After the initial sale of the device programmer to the customer, usually no
> more income will come in because it's very hard to compete with free device
> programmer software/firmware upgrades. 'Everything for free' seems to be the
> mantra these days.
>
> Microchip is the lucky one -- at least the development costs of the tools
> they produce are basically subsidized by their core business.
> But one can also make the argument that without the existence of their
> development tools in the first place, they would not be able to sell their
> core products either.
>
> Regards,
>
> Ken Pergola
>
> --
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                Bob Axtell
        PIC Hardware & Firmware Dev
          http://beam.to/baxtell
              1-520-219-2363

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