Shining Star of the Industry: Xeltek SuperPro® and its Achievements

As of third week of Feb. 2010, Superpro5000/5004GP device support reached 58,149. This is the largest number in the industry today. So, what does this number mean and how is Xeltek able to support such a large number of devices?

First, Xeltek has 25 years history in the programming business with vast accumulation of technical expertise in which originally found in 1985 under another name until its name had been changed to Xeltek in 1991. Xeltek has a large team of development engineers with experience lasting for more than 15 years in one company. This is a feature, which few other companies can claim.

Second, we make it our goal to support any and all programmable devices available in the market. Our dedicated staffs scour IC manufacturer industry in order to find new devices to support. We do not wait until customers contact us for support.

Third, Xeltek upgrades programmer hardware continuously in order to be able to support new devices. Circuit development has migrated by following the sequence from a simple FPGA based >> 8bit MCU +FPGA >> ARM7 MCU+ FPGA + Linux >> ARM9 MCU + Linux+ FPGA and now toward ARM11 MCU+ FPGA + Linux. Such a dedication is aimed at providing full support for all programmable devices available in the industry.

Xeltek aims to provide high quality and performance products at a reasonable cost. Xeltek China has been set up and in operation since 1992. It has been growing steadily over the years expanding in engineering, manufacturing, sales, and support. As a result, we are proud to provide high performance products at very reasonable cost to customers in the world market today.

Xeltek adds more than 1,000 new devices each month. Users download updated list free from Xeltek website. Users of SuperPro 3000U have seen their device count doubling in the last several years just like SuperPro 5000/5004GP showed the similar success last year. Their programmer value have increased substantially over time! Many companies talk about providing free device updates, but only Xeltek delivers true high value to users each and every year.

Xeltek SuperPro 5000/5004GP currently supports 58K+ devices and 60K device support maybe already passed while you are reading this article. This is a true milestone and a new standard of the industry unmatched by any other company.

Stand-alone and PC mode programming technology was perfected and made practical by Xeltek and has been in use for the last 6 years. As a result, Xeltek programmers are well adapted for both Engineering development and volume manufacturing. Currently, Xeltek programmers occupy more than 70% of the very large Chinese Engineering and Manufacturing market. Expensive automated programmers have been largely driven out from the Chinese market and replaced by Xeltek SuperPro Stand-alone programmers. Both Data I/O and BPM System has limited presence in the country today. One will often find that a large electronic manufacturer will use 100’s of Xeltek programmers in their manufacturing line.

We are proud of where we are right now, and our parabolic-ally increasing success will continue...

Quick peek to BeeProg Programmers

Here is a quick evaluation of BeeProg+/2 programmers:

1. Max 48pindrivers: Economized hardware design, which is a socket adapter nightmare for large pin-count devices. For example, there are 50 versions of QFP64 socket adapters. SuperPro 5000/500E/5004/5004E models come with 144pindrivers enabling easy support for today’s complex devices.

2. No Stand-alone programming capability: Stand-alone mode allows programmers to be used also in manufacturing. A person can easily operate 10 or more units for production programming without being attached to a PC. SuperPro 501S stand-alone operation allows 10 or more units to be operated simultaneously by a user without being attached to a PC. Multi-programming supported by BeeProg requires a PC with USB Hub. This requires an additional investment of a PC, a trained operator, desktop space, etc.

3. FPGA controlled hardware design: In this outmoded hardware design, programming operation becomes pc speed and operating system dependent, which causes unreliable operation for many sensitive devices. SuperPro 5000 family is ARM7/9 MCU based for high performance and precision operation. Xeltek dropped FPGA based design 10 years ago.

4. 1.8 volts min. device support: Will not be able to support today’s high performance devices. Cannot be used in most new design. SuperPro 5000 family support 1.2 volts devices.

The Fact: SuperPro 5000 w/ 144-pin vs. 48-pin Programmers

Xeltek has been serving the market with special designed 100-pin expandable module, SuperPro 3000U programmers since 2004. And since early 2008, SuperPro 5000 and SuperPro 5004GP programmers are on the market with 144 pins support by default. So, why are we developing larger pin count device programmers? The answer is obvious, to support recent large pin devices with the least required accessories not to create any extra costs for our invaluable customers.

Becoming the industry's larger device supported brand, and following the recent technology at the same time doesn't happen so easily. So called many European and Far East Asian Manufacturers are still in-capable of improving their products for many years and still serving the market with their old technology by finding temporary solutions to support large pin devices. For example, a European Manufacturer offers only 48-pin socket programmers while they are obsessed with reaching Xeltek's device support count. However, having only 48-pin programmers will cause problems when a device has more than 48 pins. In order to fit larger than 48-pin device onto 48-pin socket you will need to select certain pins from the device and channel down to the socket. But, since each device uses different pin configurations, you will need to find a different set of pins to channel down to the programmer socket for each device type. This means you have to create a unique socket adapter for each device type for the same package type. Recall our example, same European Manufacturer has almost 50 different QFP64 socket adapters because of creating different pin channels for different QFP64 devices just to bring it down to work with their 48-pin device programmer!!!

This is why we created SuperPro 3000U-100 and SuperPro 5000 with 144 pins. On either model, you need only one QFP64 socket adapter. SuperPro 5000 family with 144pin drivers support 3 times as many pin-drivers as any 48pin socket programmer can support.

There are many pin-driver PCBs installed inside Superpro5000 family of programmers. This makes the programmer larger and also more expensive. But this also makes the programmer more convenient to support large size devices and requires only one universal socket adapter instead of many specialized adapters.

In addition to the pin-driver advantage, Superpro5000 family programmers come with a host of new technological advances such as, Stand-alone & PC mode operation instead of PC mode only, ARM7/9 32bit MCU with Linux control instead of FPGA control only, low 1.2 volts device programming instead of 1.8volts, Win7 support, etc... All combined, Xeltek product technology is about 10 years ahead of other competing products in the market.

Those 48-pin socket programmers usually sell between $800 to $1200 while SuperPro 5000 144-pin programmers sell between $1495 to $1995. However, considering the frequent socket adapter needs for different device types, maintaining a 48-pin programmer cost a fortune eventually, while it seems cheaper than SuperPro 5000 programmers. For this obvious reason, we would like invite you to spend your money wisely, and get the best programmer by choosing SuperPro; because WE KNOW WHAT YOU WANT, AND THAT'S WHY WE ARE HERE!!!