Nick Metcalfe - 2013-11-07

The Database Builder is part of BitBurner and was used to generate the default fuse/lockbit database, which is also included. The builder can be accessed through the fuse database file menu (Import New Database). As the existing database is fully editable, most users will never require this functionality.

The builder attempts to extract all the required information from other installed programs. If AVR Studios are installed their libraries of part descriptions provide almost all the information about what fuses and lockbits are available on which chips. Studio 6 is the main source of information for newer chips, and Studio 4 will also be examined if present for information about obsolete chips. Descriptions disagree between studios a fair bit and are merged with preference directed by the "Prefer Studio 4" option.

The builder also looks for AvrGCC and parses the part-specific header files in an attempt to find some reasonable fuse defaults. Unfortunately, GCC is full of mistakes in this regard, which the builder does it's best to try and fix.

Dangerous fuse bits are anything that could brick a chip. These are matched by name, the list of dangerous fuse names is editable.

Device aliases add names to chips. AVR Studio and AvrDude have some small disagreements on what some chips are designated as. Also, some chips AvrDude expects are not present in AVR Studio(!). The most likely AVR Studio candidates are aliased to the AvrDude chips.

There is also an option to nominate chips whose descriptions are so broken they should be left out as they are unusable anyway.

Why would one want to use the builder? Well, one probably doesn't. If one is using lots of older devices, "Prefer Studio 4" may (not?) generate more accurate fuse/lockbit descriptions for a few chips. Other than that, it's just for development purposes.