Function
For programming a circuit, it is either inserted into a socket (often ZIF) on top of the programmer, or the programmer is directly connected by an adapter to the circuit board (In-System Programming). Afterwards the data is transferred into the circuit by applying signals to the connecting pins. Some circuits have a serial interface for receiving the programming data (JTAG interface). Other circuits require the data on parallel pins, followed by a programming pulse with a higher voltage for programming the data into the circuit.
Usually device programmers are connected to a personal computer through a printer connector, USB port or LAN interface. A software program on the computer then transfers the data to the programmer, selects the circuit and interface type, and starts the programming process.
Read more about this topic: Programmer (hardware)
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“Morality and its victim, the mother—what a terrible picture! Is there indeed anything more terrible, more criminal, than our glorified sacred function of motherhood?”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Uses are always much broader than functions, and usually far less contentious. The word function carries overtones of purpose and propriety, of concern with why something was developed rather than with how it has actually been found useful. The function of automobiles is to transport people and objects, but they are used for a variety of other purposes—as homes, offices, bedrooms, henhouses, jetties, breakwaters, even offensive weapons.”
—Frank Smith (b. 1928)
“Advocating the mere tolerance of difference between women is the grossest reformism. It is a total denial of the creative function of difference in our lives. Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.”
—Audre Lorde (1934–1992)