VOGONS


First post, by karelbre

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Newbie

Hi,

I am curious if there is possibility to replace BIOS on FLASH by the same BIOS on EPROM or EEPROM if they have same (similar) pinout layout and same or higher capacity? Let's say DIP32 package.
I could find on internet just comparison between ROM types and maybe few questions about replacing (E)EPROM by FLASH ROM but not vice versa.

For example SST39SF040 (4Mbit) and M27C4001 (also 4Mbit). I was looking on datasheets for both ROMs and their pinout looks almost the same (VCC, Ground, Data, Address). Only pins 1 and 31 are different (AD18, WE vs VPP, A18).

https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/Device … c/20005022C.pdf
https://html.alldatasheet.com/html-pdf/22823/ … 2/M27C4001.html

Does anybody tried that or it's completely impossible to do it?

Reply 1 of 1, by Tiido

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There's usually a difference in top address line(s) and !WE pin, since EPROMs have a programming voltage pin that wast majority of Flash chips don't have and some different ideas about if a write strobe is needed or not.

To use Flash in place of EPROM you have to make sure that the !WE pin is in high state and relocate address pins if entire address space is required. In the example with 1MBit EPROM and 4MBit flash, you just mirror the image to fill entire flash, then the top address lines stop mattering and only !WE needs to be looked at more carefully.

EPROM in place of flash has the same problem, the top address lines need relocating if entire space is necessary and some attention is needed about what state the VPP pin needs to be for normal operation. In most cases it needs to be at 5V level but I have seen EPROMs that want it to be at GND instead. !WE state may or may not be important but in general it should be in high state as with flash chips.

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