Using a PAL for a seven segment display

Question

I know next to nothing about PAL. I was wondering how one goes about programming a PAL (an old TIBPAL 16L8-25CN in my case) to drive a seven segment display, sort of like a HEF4511B. Right now I just have an arduino uno and a raspberry pi, do I have to buy an EPROM programmer? What program should I use?

• jippie: Why do you want to use a PAL? Do you have the vendor's toolchain (software) to generate the appropriate files for the PAL-programmer? For driving a 7 segment display I would personally either use an off the shelf driver or a small microcontroller.
• pipe: This would be a good question if you remove the part about the seven segment display, since it is irrelevant to your actual question.
• jippie: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_Array_Logic#Programming_PALs
• user3856804: jippie: I understand, and I'll do that in the future, I just want a project to test out using a PAL like this.
• Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams: Please don't use a PAL. You won't gain anything over using a CPLD or FPGA that is actually available.

Answer 1

You need some software (ABEL, WINCUPL, PALASM) and a compatible programmer (hardware). As Bruce says, this series is OTP (one time programmable) so if you make a mistake you need another chip. There were some UV erasable (windowed) parts made with similar capabilities (different part numbers).

You can probably download at least one of the software programs for free, and if you have a universal EPROM programmer that supports PALs you may be all set save for the actual development. The software is so old you may have to run it in emulation under DOS (or equivalent) since it's probably 16-bit code.

For something more modern, look at Xilinx Coolrunner CPLDs (flash-based) but the software is a bit of a pig.