> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu 
> [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Alan B. Pearce
>
> I am always amazed (or maybe I shouldn't be) at the short 
> lifetime of these "do-all-chips" devices, as the developers
> find that they just  cannot upgrade the software to keep up 
> with the changing programming  strategies. I had
> access to just such a device at one time, and had occasion to 
> program a number of chips, and ended up with about a 30% 
> programming failure.
> 
There are good ones for production usage. They are normally
very expensive and not so suitable for small companies,
let alone hobbyists.

In the production we use Data I/O gang programmers. Each
adapter costs several hundred dollars and there are
also software maintenance fees. 

We had an old Sprint (bought over by Data I/O) single programmer 
in my department. When I started to use PIC, I thought of use that 
programmer but the software update fee was more than the cost of 
Promate II plus a few adapters. The adapter is also expensive. 
So I bought the Promate II instead.

Regards,
Xiaofan

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