blow an EPROM
/bloh *n ee'prom/ (Or "blast", "burn") To program a read-only memory, e.g. for use with an embedded system. This term arose because the programming process for the Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM) that preceded present-day Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM) involved intentionally blowing tiny electrical fuses on the chip. The usage lives on (it's too vivid and expressive to discard) even though the write process on EPROMs is nondestructive.
[The Jargon File]
(1994-11-29)