Your suggestion, to which you refer, is correct, but not helpful. He probably already knew it was an uphill battle when he came to 8052.COM. He wanted help doing what HE had already decided to do, but was only offered help doing something else. He wanted to build an EEPROM programmer, yet was only told to build an ISP 805x system, never mind that his programmer was also supposed to function as a standalone "computer." Frankly, I personally like the idea of using an ISP MCU to program an external EEPROM. The "big" SiLabs part is probably just about as ideal as one could get for this app. It has 8KB of SRAM, 64 KB of program store, is JTAG compatible, and runs like a bat out of hell. It can download code over the serial port and subsequently program an external EEPROM with a minimum of hassle. I don't recall whether the eval board had a large-enough prototype area on it for placement of a ZIF socket for an EEPROM. The part itself would be difficult to prototype, since I doubt that Mike wants to build a PCB.

As I've said many times, I think it's incumbent on "advisors" in this forum to answer the question put to them before they offer suggestions that a different path should be pursued.

All the suggestions regarding how to make Ford run better won't help when what's being repaired is a Vespa.

In explaining how to solve his specific problem, there'll be lots of opportunity to point out how difficult it is. Specifics are necessary, though.

RE