[Premium-Rx] Racal RA6778 firmware listing needed, and eprom longevity...

[Peter Gottlieb]

I have not seen EPROMS get erased unintentionally, with two exceptions:

Those left on a desk in the sunlight without foil cover labels.

Those shipped overseas and subjected to neutron scanning (there were OTP devices 
in epoxy packages!  We then tried to x-ray other OTP devices but it took quite 
an exposure to completely clear them so apparently the neutron explosive 
detection units are much more effective).

I suppose it is plausible that all the charge leaked out from yours but I would 
think if it was a long term effect you would still see some data in there.

It is easy enough to read out and save ERPOM data though, so long as the devices 
are socketed and you take proper ESD precautions.

Peter


Dan Rae wrote:
> I recently bought one of these interesting receivers, which 
> incidentally, must qualify as one of the earliest, if not the earliest 
> Premium Rx, (Vintage late 1978) only to discover that it has lost one of 
> the firmware eprom contents, and is thus totally dead, in other words an 
> ex-radio.
> 
> I was aware that eproms could theoretically lose their contents with 
> time, but this is the first time I've seen it at first hand.  I heard 
> that the early manufacturers of eproms only guaranteed them to retain 
> data for ten years.  In this case 25 plus years seems to have been 
> enough to do it.  The first of the three 2708 eproms in the radio shows 
> all Fs...
> 
> So, I'm going to embark on a project to back up the contents of all the 
> eproms around here, in the older gear first, and there are a lot!  9 in 
> the hp 8903A, more in the 3586 and who knows what else until I start 
> looking?
> Meanwhile is there anyone who has a working one of these RA6778s , and 
> it must be the A or B model, not the later C, who can help?  I have 
> eproms and a programmer, I just need the file to stuff in there.
> 
> And beware! Yours may be the next to die...
> 
> 73
> Dan
> ac6ao / g3ncr
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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