Hi all

I've recently bought some 22V10B-15LLP GALs and a Genius G540 programmer.
The only thing I lack now is a compiler of some sort.

Can any recommend a decent but free or cheap compiler and are there any real gotchas that I should be aware of?

Try downloading Atmel's WinCUPL for a start.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Cool. Thanks BDD.
I notice that the devices listed are only Atmel (no great surprise!). I assume I can select an ATF22V10B for the Lattice 22V10B chips that I have?

Well my first experiment has not succeeded lol. Pin 2 & 3 are supposed to get ANDed together and give the output on pin 23. I attached an LED with a seris 1K5 resistor drawing 2mA to pin 23 ... and it lights up. No matter then input on pins 2 & 3. Must be doing something wrong. Time for some experiments.

Here's the file so far!

I don't see anything wrong with that code. Are you sure your burner was correctly set up? Also, have you tried a different GAL, just in case the first one is defective?

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Generally speaking, a 22V10 is a 22V10. The suffixes are supposed to mean the same thing but you might want to compare data sheets to be sure.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Thanks again, BDD.

I've found the problem. The ZIF socket (as reported by others) is utter rubbish. Half the time it doesn't fully connect with the GAL.
The other issue is that there a number of stages which the software goes through:
ERASE
BLANK
PROGRAM
VERIFY
ENCRYPT

I disabled Encrypt and now it works fine. For anyone who has this not-so-high-quality programmer, this is done by doing the following:
1) Go into the drop-down SET menu
2) Click Set Programming Sequence
3) In the right hand panel, click on Encrypt
4) Click Delete button
5) Click OK

This programmer and its manual are laughably bad.

During my sojourn looking for a solution for the above via google (to no avail - I used the trial and error method ultimately), I did notice that there aren't many English video tutorials on GAL programming (for any programmer) and trying to find examples of GAL scripts also very difficult.

I think GAL & PALs really are dead/dying...

WinCUPL installs a load of examples along with the executable and this describes the syntax and special suffixes

http://ecee.colorado.edu/~mcclurel/Atme ... oc0737.pdf

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Andrew Jacobs
6502 & PIC Stuff - http://www.obelisk.me.uk/
Cross-Platform 6502/65C02/65816 Macro Assembler - http://www.obelisk.me.uk/dev65/
Open Source Projects - https://github.com/andrew-jacobs

I had the same issue with my TOPS853 programmer. Replacing the ZIF socket was tedious and time-consuming but did solve the problem. Now the 853 is reliable and gets used for burning EPROMs for hobby purposes. I have a different (more expensive) programmer whose software is better designed and supports many more devices. However, it is more cumbersome to use, so I haven't actually put it to work all that often.


Not sure what the "encrypt" step would accomplish, unless this is a step that blows the security fuse in the GAL.


Unfortunately, that's often the case when the price is low.


Atmel seems to be the only vendor currently producing these devices. They are problematic to program because of Atmel's idiosyncratic algorithms. There are still a lot of Lattice devices readily available, as when Lattice announced the discontinuation of their GAL series, some liquidators placed last-time-buy orders for many thousands of them.

Although it's tempting to reach for a CPLD or FPGA for complex logic, many of the designs that we kick around here can be realized with GALs.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

I was avoiding Atmel as I've read of the issues some people hvae with them (particularly with the G540). Where I can, I'll stick to the Lattice ones.

With regard to CPLD and FPGA, aren't they quite expensive to implement? And don't they need to be loaded from E(E)PROM/PROM each time your circuit is turned on? I haven't really looked at these previously, but if they're not a complete pain to use I might invest - just out of curiousity .

Cheers, bitwise. I did spot the manual, but it was more an observation on the lack of external content. Mostly this was on youtube and other such sites where you normally find a ton of video guides.

Not sure what you mean by expensive to implement. You do need hardware and software to program a CPLD, but it can be done on the cheap. Programming software is often available at no charge.


A CPLD stores the logic burned into it, the same as an EEPROM. An FPGA does not store the logic, so it has to be loaded from a non-volatile source, e.g., an EPROM, at system power-up.


Once you get familiar with the programming tools and the general workflow, the development process is relatively painless.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

That's often true, but it's not a defining chacteristic of FPGAs. A quick check of the Wikipedia FPGA article shows that Microsemi's ProAsic 3 and Lattice's XP2 devices store their configuration internally in nonvolatile flash memory. A less casual search would probably reveal other examples.

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In 1988 my 65C02 got six new registers and 44 new full-speed instructions!
https://laughtonelectronics.com/Arcana/ ... mmary.html

I was generalizing, of course.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

I notice that most CPLD don't come in a DIP package. How do you deal with PLCC when wire wrapping? I haven't seen any ww PLCC sockets...