> > What's wrong with a beginner's bootstrap programmer where you can follow
> > the individual bits on an LED? :)
>
> Come to think of it, all you need to program a blinkenled into a blank
> PIC with Flash is two debounced toggle switches and a table. Then you
> can toggle it all in ... oh and a Load/Stop/Run switch. First person to
> field a PIC programmer with blinkenlights and panel toggle switches will
> make history (pun!).
>
> Toggling a 10-word program toggled into a PIC16Fxxx requires about 280
> clock toggles and half as many data toggles. Do-able with some patience,
> probably after splitting into 5-toggle groups ;-)
>
> Peter

Or better yet, a couple DIP switches and a shift register. Of course then
you'd need some type of counter to make sure you get the right number of
clock cycles, and some glue logic to hold it all together - hey I could
program a PIC to do all that :-)

Seriously though, what about I2C off the motherboard? Just add an expander
chip like a PCF8584 and you should be able to bit bash as necessary. Or the
newest FTDI chips with their "additional new modes of operation including a
Multi-Protocol Synchronous Serial Engine (MPSSE) interface which is designed
specifically for synchronous serial protocols such as I2C, JTAG and SPI bus"


-Denny

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