Erik, somewhere you wrote all new chips when powered on for the first time, switch to serial programming mode automatically (no pin magic required) - Do you know how it is achieved? Could it be that they have a notouch style program factory written in their program memory?
I did not, I wrote "all new Philips chips "

The Philips means of entering ISP is depending on a specific content of two registers. One set the entry point, the other set "ISP mode" The "funny signal levels" set these the "ISP mode" register, NoTouch does the same by software. Factory fresh Philips chips have these two registers set for ISP.

I am under the impression (based on posts here) that Atmels means are similar, but have no Idea how Dallas does it.

Erik