[plug] [OT] Companies in Perth that can flash BIOS chips

[Paul Antoine]

Brad wrote:

> On the topic of 'lectronicy things. If any of you are into 
> microcontroller tinkering I highly recommend checking out the 
> (relatively new) "Parallax Propeller".

Looked at that briefly... it certainly has a strong following.

In my recent microcontroller tinkering I settled on the PIC 18F2550/4450 
series with USB capability.  I've now built my first USB peripheral :-)

Been having lots of fun writing C for it too... and with the USB 
bootloader my compile/flash/test cycle is about 15 seconds.  Beats the 
hell out of erasing and reprogramming EPROMs from the bad ol' days!!!

Oh, and for those of the "printf school of debugging", being able to 
send status info up the USB to the PC to monitor the often whacky 
outcomes of embedded bugs is fantastic! Again it beats blinking LEDs 
etc. from the bad ol' days :-)

Paul