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!!!