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parallel-port flash programming a MaxSpeed MaxTerm 230?

J

Jonathan

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,
I've been able to find used MaxSpeed thin clients, the MaxTerm 230, very
cheap from surplus sources. This unit is a low-end PC, basically. The
main differences are that it doesn't have a full PC BIOS, and it boots
from an 8MB on-board flash chip.
The unit normally runs WinCE 3.0. What I'd like to do is load either a
Linux-based thin client image into the 8MB flash, or at least a capable
Linux bootloader that could then boot the OS from other media. The
trick is, it's hard to program the flash.
The limited BIOS in this unit has a hotkey combination during POST
(Alt-F9) that initiates some sort of parallel-port flash programming
routine. This was intended for disaster recovery, and would be perfect
for loading foreign images into the onboard flash. But there's only 2
ways to make this work:

1) Acquire the old DOS program that MaxSpeed used in conjunction with
this feature. MaxSpeed (now Neoware) tech support tells me they no
longer have this utility. (I wonder if any former customers out there
have it?)
2) Reverse engineer the parallel-port protocol, and write a compatible
server application from scratch.

1) is much easier, of course. If I have to go with 2), where should I
start? I can put a scope on the parallel port's handshake lines, but I
wouldn't know where to go next.

thanks for any ideas/feedback/assistance,
Jonathan
 
J

Jonathan

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jonathan said:
Hi,
I've been able to find used MaxSpeed thin clients, the MaxTerm 230, very
cheap from surplus sources. This unit is a low-end PC, basically. The
main differences are that it doesn't have a full PC BIOS, and it boots
from an 8MB on-board flash chip.
The unit normally runs WinCE 3.0. What I'd like to do is load either a
Linux-based thin client image into the 8MB flash, or at least a capable
Linux bootloader that could then boot the OS from other media. The
trick is, it's hard to program the flash.
The limited BIOS in this unit has a hotkey combination during POST
(Alt-F9) that initiates some sort of parallel-port flash programming
routine. This was intended for disaster recovery, and would be perfect
for loading foreign images into the onboard flash. But there's only 2
ways to make this work:

1) Acquire the old DOS program that MaxSpeed used in conjunction with
this feature. MaxSpeed (now Neoware) tech support tells me they no
longer have this utility. (I wonder if any former customers out there
have it?)
2) Reverse engineer the parallel-port protocol, and write a compatible
server application from scratch.

1) is much easier, of course. If I have to go with 2), where should I
start? I can put a scope on the parallel port's handshake lines, but I
wouldn't know where to go next.

thanks for any ideas/feedback/assistance,
Jonathan

Well in response to my own post, I now realize I was approaching the
problem wrong. I could spend months needlessly reverse-engineering that
parallel-port download protocol they use.
This thin client happens to have a regular PC architecture. So it looks
like it will be easier to simply replace the basic WinCE BIOS with a
fully-capable PC BIOS, or LinuxBIOS. This is the road I'm investigating
now. The CPU, South Bridge, and Super IO chips are all supported by
LinuxBIOS, so I'm thinking that will be a good, free, way to go.
Once the machine has a "normal" BIOS, I will have control of it,
including the on-board flash chip. As long as the on-board flash has a
DoC-type interface, I think there are myriad possibilities for this
machine's new life.
 
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