Programming Performance |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There are loads of different programmers on the market today and even more different software programs to operate the programmers. So which programmer should you buy?? In other words, which is the best package?? Well there is no such thing as the best. They all have their distinct advantages and disadvantages. But there are of course software programs that perform better than others. That's why I have made this comparison. I have tested programming speeds of several software packages and programmers on several computers and programming several card types. All programming was done, using files 2 files (PIC & Eeprom) on PIC type cards and using 3 files (Flash, Internal- & External Eeprom) on funcards. Click on the column headers to resort the table!!
I have tested several software programs with both the MasterA III and the MasterCRD 2 and it turned out that the programmer had no influence at all on the programming times. The difference in programming times, comes from the PC on which the software runs. You may expect the VX Multi and the VP-20/DL-20 to offer about the same programming speeds as the MasterA & MasterCRD. What you can't see from this table, but what I found striking, is how the differences in performance between the PC's, depending on Serial or parallel programming. It turned out that with serial programming, my Windows 98 laptop was fastest generally, while it was slowest (by far) with parallel programming. * The programming times for CardWriter need some explanation. All software was tested in write only mode, so no verifying at all. CardWriter doesn't allow you to choose such an option though. So the programming times for CardWriter, do contain verifying. What's more: CardWriter offers verify during programming , which means that whenever a write error is detected, the software will start writing again from the beginning. The times for the Silvercard in the above table, include 2 and 3 write retries respectively. ** Some comment about the programming times with the Gold-Mate PC: In order to be able to program anything to your card, you first need to fill the Gold-Mate PC's memory buffer. That's done either by software, or by reading another card. So if you edited a file and then want to program you card with that new data, you would need to add the times for loading the files from the PC to the buffer memory, to the pure programming times in the above table. Loading times are as follows:
*** A note to MasterBurner: If you are using any programmer, other than the MasterCRD's, MasterUSB's or SC-Master's, you will need to configure MasterBurner for use with a MasterCRD LC. In that case, MasterBurner will inform you about the correct mode you have to choose for each step in the programming process. The net programming times are identical to the ones mentioned above, but because you will need to switch manually, the total programming time will be increased with another 5 sec. or so. **** A note to the Fun USB: The mentioned programming time is for the Funcard-6! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||