Does DMS have a programmer that will program PAL, GAL IC’s
I have a few programmers in my shop in Highland Village and can program most EPROMs, EEPROMs, PROMs, PALs, GALs, and even PALCE and some PLA chips and many Flash ROMs.
- TopMax
- TopMax II
- Data I/O Series 22
- Stag ZL30a
Heck I even have an old old one with a slew of switches on it to manually program old 1702A EPROMs. 
Raymond,
Thank you for the reply. I would like to copy a PALC22V10 and a GAL22V10D. For some reason my programmer can do many different chips but won’t handle these. Is there any way that I can borrow or buy a programmer from you that can copy these. I see quite a few for sale on Ebay but they don’t specify that they’ll do these IC’s. I’m trying to repair an industrial inkjet printer that prints date codes on packaging.
Thanks
Don Parker
Hi Don,
Sorry, but the TopMax II programmers are not inexpensive. They list for almost $800. You can’t always copy those either. There’s a security fuse or security bit on the PALs that prevent them from being read
For smaller PROMs there are ways to read secured ones… http://dreamjam.co.uk/emuviews/readpal.php
But that doesn’t work for the larger ones you have.
You may not be able to copy directly. You may have to read in the PAL and use a PAL-to-GAL translator, then write the GAL. Or, decompile the PAL to logic equations, then recompile for the GAL.
If you need someone to read the PAL, I can do it. Just PM me.
If you want an inexpensive programmer that can do the job, and you have a computer with a parallel port, and you can afford spending on a programmer that can’t handle new chips, consider the BP-1200: http://www.ebay.com/itm/162595898024, but this only handles 5V parts and is end-of-life, meaning no new parts will be supported.
The cheap TL866A programmers on Ebay seem to be versatile and can read/write GALs, but don’t list PALs in the device list.
If you want a programmer that has a USB interface and handles PALs and GALs, you may be looking at a programmer in the $800 and up range, as Raymond said.
You could always get an old programmer (or a DMS member) to read the file, then use a cheap TL866A to write the GAL.
This is made a bit more complicated since the PALC22V10 isn’t a fuse link PAL, but a CMOS one with EPROM technology that is UV erasable IF it’s windowed. I’m not sure how directly the mappings read from it will need to be translated. PAL to GAL is pretty simple using software. Not sure what’s available to translate something read from that Cypress chip to a GAL.
Did some more looking…
Translations are required for the smaller GALs, but not the bigger ones. You’re in luck.
This came from the following white paper:
I have one, and its support of GAL’s is not as good as their ‘supported chips’ list would indicate. There are many chips that it fails to program that the supported chip list would indicate that would work. From what I have read on the forums, this seems to be a problem with many of the low cost (Chinese slave labor) programmers. The programming protocols for the GAL chips weren’t apparently not openly published, so many of the chips are only supported via ‘undocumented’ protocols that don’t always work. In particular the only currently manufactured GALS come from ATMEL/MICROCHIP and those don’t appear to be supported reliably by any of the cheap (<$1000) programmers.
Thank you for your reply,
The software upgrade that was installed with these IC’s is on two of seven control boards that I have. My intention is to try and bring all the boards to the same version, the earlier versions are obsolete and the revised ones will be soon as well. Most of the software was written to standard 27C512 eprom’s. Apparently this change was not able to be included in the existing code. One of the upgraded boards has (1) PALC22V10 and (1) GAL22V10D that was used to add the revision. On the second upgraded board the revision is made using (2) GAL22V10D’s so apparently they are somewhat interchangeable. The problem I have is that my programmer does not handle either device. The GAL22V10D’s are available on ebay.