Yeah, if all else fails that's exactly what I'm going to do with CC_333's card--pull the chip and reflash it in a programmer. But we have to be sure of what actually needs to be flashed to it first -- the firmware image included with the updater looks kind of weird, so I want to make sure it's an exact copy of what's actually on the chip first.
I don't think blank flash actually prevents you from accessing this particular type of chip from the computer. We'll know more as soon as the card I ordered arrives and I can do a raw dump of its flash chip. I'd rather do some research first so the community gets more useful future information about these cards in the process.
It's somewhat surprising to me that the different chips don't all work using the same flashing routines. For the most part these chips all claim to support the JEDEC specification and listen to the same command set for erase/program operations. I've checked the datasheets of several flash chip variants and they all adhere to the exact same command set for erasing the entire chip and programming bytes. I've had no trouble in my SIMM programmer flashing multiple brands of chips using the exact same generic JEDEC-compatible flashing routine (the exception being the 16 megabit chips I use which are slightly different because they can talk in 16-bit data mode).
It does seem that these firmware update programs have multiple routines for different chip brands. Other than maybe if they're protecting the chip or erasing individual sectors (the sector layouts and protection mechanism can vary a bit between chips), I don't fully understand why they have multiple flash routines. The MXIC chip listens to the same command set for erase and program commands as the SST chips I use, which also match the AMD chips I've used. I dunno.
I don't think blank flash actually prevents you from accessing this particular type of chip from the computer. We'll know more as soon as the card I ordered arrives and I can do a raw dump of its flash chip. I'd rather do some research first so the community gets more useful future information about these cards in the process.
It's somewhat surprising to me that the different chips don't all work using the same flashing routines. For the most part these chips all claim to support the JEDEC specification and listen to the same command set for erase/program operations. I've checked the datasheets of several flash chip variants and they all adhere to the exact same command set for erasing the entire chip and programming bytes. I've had no trouble in my SIMM programmer flashing multiple brands of chips using the exact same generic JEDEC-compatible flashing routine (the exception being the 16 megabit chips I use which are slightly different because they can talk in 16-bit data mode).
It does seem that these firmware update programs have multiple routines for different chip brands. Other than maybe if they're protecting the chip or erasing individual sectors (the sector layouts and protection mechanism can vary a bit between chips), I don't fully understand why they have multiple flash routines. The MXIC chip listens to the same command set for erase and program commands as the SST chips I use, which also match the AMD chips I've used. I dunno.