Eprom reader/programmer for 2716 chips

[MMER1116]

Does anyone used an Eprom Reader / Programmer on the older 2716 chips?

Thanks,
Mike

[Op-Bell]

Define "older 2716 chips". There was more than one kind with the same part number. Some needed 5V, 12V and -5V, others were 5V only, so you need to specify the manufacturer.

I have programmers that can do the 5V-only 2716s. I would have to make something to do the 3-supply kind, though fortunately these are quite rare.

[MMER1116]

TMS 2716JL-45 Eprom Chip made by Texas Instruments used in old Fortune 1 games.

[Op-Bell]

I was afraid you were going to say Texas Instruments. The TMS2716 was a 3-supply chip. Everyone elses' 2716 was 5V only.

Texas Instruments was the Microsoft of the 1960s. They weren't great innovators, they were followers, but their hubris was so big they thought if they copied something and changed it a bit, the whole world follow and do it the TI way and the competitors would be crushed. It didn't quite work out like that. If you designed a board for the TMS2716 you couldn't use any other kind, and if you designed for the industry standard kind, TMS wouldn't work. Since nobody wanted a 3-supply 2716, sales were poor and TI kept lowering the price until ignorant purchasing managers would snap them up thinking they got a great deal on 2716s, then discover they didn't work in production and the whole purchase was a write-off. Texas belatedly brought out a 5V chip with industry standard pinout and called it a TMS2516, but by that time, people had got wary that they wouldn't buy anything starting with TMS. I'd like to say TI learned their lesson, but they did it again with the next generation. Never make the mistake of buying a TMS2732 when you really mean any normal 2732.

I am highly doubtful there is a programmer still made that will program those TMS2716s. Most will not even be able to read them. Here are the pinouts, the best I can suggest is you use normal 2716s and make an adapter to change the pinout. Take socket 20 to chip 19 (A10), socket 19 and 21 open (VDD and VBB), link chip 20 to chip 12 and chip 21 to chip 24. That doesn't solve the problem of how you're going to read the TMS to copy them.

[badbaud]

When I worked at Fortune Coin many years ago we would program the tri-voltage 2716's with a wirewrapped in shop designed programmer (I know, I was the one who had to wirewrap them) three of these programmers were built and I still have one of them and it still works. It still has the 18 pin connector we used to plug into the target board and emulate software on the FI board. Notice those 18 pin sockets are ripped out and epoxied over in most boards, that's because you could plug in one of these hand built programmers and download and upload software to the game.
One thing we used to do was download a tri-voltage 2716 into the programmer and reprogram the software onto a 2732 single voltage EPROM. There are jumper options on the FI board to allow single voltage EPROMS to work. Yes I could probably clone a chip or two for you but you must provide some erased blanks along with the masters.

[brichter]

How 'bout the parts and schematic necessary to make an adapter for the tri-voltage 2716?

[StatFreak]

How 'bout the parts and schematic necessary to make an adapter for the tri-voltage 2716?

Give a man a fish ... or teach him to fish... 

[badbaud]

How about (using a standard EPROM programmer that can program 2716's) make a -5 volt and + 12 volt power supply. Raise the -5 and +12 legs up and put the chip into the programmers socket. With some micro clips connect the -5 and +12 voltages to the chip AFTER connecting the power supplies ground to pin 12 of the 2716 then load the software into memory, remove the tri-voltage chip and put in a single voltage chip and program the software into that? Change the jumper settings on the FI board to accept single voltage 2716's.