Actually the TR7 came out before DOS or just as DOS was arriving on the scene so computers were a rarity in business at that time. Since the 74S387 was mask programmed for Drake and house numbered I suspect that National Semiconductor or whoever the IC maker was helped Drake develop the truth table or Drake may have done it themselves and then sent it to the IC maker to make for them. I sent Bill Frost a message asking if a device might still be lurking in their parts drawers. Bill's reply was that there are none laying around and that John Kriner had needed one about a year ago and had to rob one off of another DR7. The 74S387 and similar 82S129N and 82S126N and several other proms were programmed by blowing the fuse link just like the band modules for the AUX7. For that reason the OS should not be an issue. It is an issue for me because I would like to be able to burn my own and although I have a Needham PB10 eprom programmer I can not use it because it uses an ISA slot (my computer does not have an ISA slot and they went away several years ago). There are many programmers on the market that will do it and many are stand alone programmers but most were designed for shops and so the price is high and start at about $500 and quickly go up with most being in the $1000 price range but that does not help most of us hobbiest. However, needing to program a bipolar prom is not something that most of us will need to do more than once or twice. Before long the proms will be unobtainable anyway so it becomes a mute point. I see a lot of web pages that are making eprom adapters for Motorola Syntor and MCX series vhf radios because they use bipolar proms but an eprom will work. In short, if you can get a 24 or 28 pin eprom to fit in the same space it will work. It just is not as pretty but that is what the vhf guys are doing to reprogram the Motorola radios for the ham bands if they can not find 82S129's to program or do not have a programmer to do it even if they have a blank chip. The OS issue comes into play with some programs and programmers because XP I/O calls do not work the same as they did with Windows 2000 and earlier operating systems. I am not familiar with the MAC so I do not know what is out there for it. Maybe this information helps and maybe it just makes things more confusing but I hope it does not make it confusing. Thank you. Jim Pruitt
>>> On 1/31/2007 at 5:21 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Very interesting post. Suddenly I realize there is another fly in the ointment besides part and hardware obsolescence: the operating system. I wonder what Drake used. Was it Dos, CP/M, or what? Also what is the data format? Im curious. -------------- Original message -------------- From: "Jim Pruitt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > "Jim Pruitt" made an utterance to the drakelist gang > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Hello Mike and the group. > > I have it from 2 reliable sources that U9003 was actually a mask programmed > 74S387 which is a 256 x 4 bipolar prom. > > I have found circuits for a couple of readers. One is at > http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/5857/progamr.htm > but will only do the Signetics versions (82S126, 82S129, etc) which are > available from Jameco but much more expensive than the 74S387. What I have > not been able to find is what software to use with that hardware. N7OCS > sells a dos program but I can not tell from his web page! if that will only > set up files for Syntor and MCX100 Motorola vhf radios or if it will read > and program all the devices the programmer will work with. So if anyone > knows where to get software that will work with the programmer I would be > interested in knowing. > > I do know that there are many "universal programmers" in current production > that read bipolar proms but most are in the $800 plus price range. There > was one a pocket programmer that I ran across that is usb but is $250. It > is or was very popular with the PIC group.
