Random ROMs

EPROM

I have this weird habit. I collect stuff…

Even weirder, I am insanely curious about the stuff I collect, even if it takes me years to discover what it is I’ve actually collected. In this case, I was perusing through parts drawers and came across a bunch or EPROMS. These EPROMS were collected over the years as I came across old circuit boards and pulled the EPROMS off of them. I had long since forgotten where they came from, and I’m sure I had high hopes of putting them to use on an electronics project of some type someday.

But before I do any of that, I must explore all facets of the items I collect. In the case of EPROMS, I need to look at their contents and try to figure out what they were used for. For the most part, I have no idea.

Recently, I scanned the contents of a bunch of EPROMs with my EPROM reader. To do so, I had to fire up an old Windows XP system I had because the drivers don’t work in Windows 10. So once I got everything going, I spent about an hour scanning 17 EPROMS (initially).  I have more to scan, but those will be at a later date. Feel free to check back on this page to see any additional EPROMs I posted.

The scans provided little more than a sequence of HEX values that transcribed to random characters. So somewhere in all of those bits are a mystery, or merely worthless junk, to be transcribed in a sense.

None of the content meant anything to me. However, I am also the kind of person that believes information like this should be free to play around with. So… at the bottom of this page are separate links to download the contents in BIN format. The file names are a four digit serial number, followed by the chip type. They probably won’t reveal anything if loaded up in a text editor, but they should load OK in a hex editor. The content could be secret text, program code for a yet unknown CPU, could contain information that can lead to the cure for world hunger… or they could be used for an extremely large bit-key for an encryption algorithm. It’s all here for YOU to decide.

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So have fun if you are inclined to be curious about this content. And please, let me know what you discover by leaving a comment below.

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