Hardware programming

[ShadowSlayer469]

How exactly is hardware programmed? What language is used? And can I do this without really expensive equipment? I wanted to make a program that "re-creates" an old telephone, by turning on and off the phone line to dial. I wanted to program a piece of hardware to do this for me. If no one knows thats ok.

[rustedtight]

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/machine_language.html

[ShadowSlayer469]

Thanks, but I still need to know how/if I could possibaly program this information onto a computer chip.

[coolguyj2]

well shadow what chip do you exactly wanna program??? if you wanna change your BIOS then you need to go to the manufacturer's site and download the latest ver for your BIOS and flash it... all the instructions will be provided with the update
note: it may cause problems also...
If you wanna program some other chip then you need to know the Control Word and the input lines of the chip... then you will need another chip (maybe a microprocessor or a microcontroller) and interface the chip with it... then using instructions of micro processor / micro controller you will have to feed the new Control Word into the chip... Every programmable chip has a control word and it has an address... the address of control word depends where you have interfaced it with the microprocessor/ microcoontroller. You will have to store the new control word exactly on that location... otherwise the outcome may be diffrent from what you expect...
I hope above information is adequate and helps you out...
NOTE: you need to have a good amount of knowledge for this... Even you can use the parallel ports of your computer for this... but you need to know what address are these ports interfaced at...

[rustedtight]

quote:Originally posted by ShadowSlayer469

Thanks, but I still need to know how/if I could possibaly program this information onto a computer chip.

Provide chip details.

[ShadowSlayer469]

I actually havn't gotten one yet, I was going to ask someone in the store what I should get.

[khellendros1984]

I assume you want to reprogram a modem or something?

You're going to need extensive knowledge of general programming, and you're not talking a minor project with this. People spend years doing this stuff.

Basically, it would involve finding a list of commands available to the modem (or whatever you're hacking). From there, you'd need to write a program in the language of commands that the hardware recognizes. The languages are usually completely propriatary, and for something simple like a modem, quite possibly rather primitive. If you're talking about rewriting the command system from scratch, it's more complex. For a Winmodem, it would be easiest. As I understand, that would be just changing the drivers within Windows. Drivers are often coded in something like C, so not too many problems there.

Hope this gives at least some ideas of how complex a thing you're talking about.

Note: THere is a possibility that I am wrong on at least some of this. I am self- taught in what I know, altohugh with about 5 years of experience. Anyway, I am POSITIVE that it would just be easier to write a program to do what you want to do with already existing hardware and hardware programming.

[khellendros1984]

BTW, what EXACTLY do you want to do?

Make a modem inside of a computer capable of making phone calls using the computer, program a different type of hardware to try to do the same thing, or build a standalone telephone-like device using computer components? May suggestios would help most with the first two options, I think.

[ShadowSlayer469]

I told you what I wanted to do in my first post, plese read the problem before posting, don't feel bad I got yelled at for that too!


but I don't really want to do that anymore, making something that would turn on and off a light, at different times, would be more usefull.