MAX7000AE programming issue

[Altera_Forum]

Hello All, 

 The background is that we have some boards that were created by our company some 5 or 6 years ago. There is no one left who was involved with the project. We found one board that was programmed and a number of others that were not.   I now need to get the image off of the one programmed board and get it onto the other boards.   I am not quite sure where to start as this is my first time using an Altera product.   Thanks.

[Altera_Forum]

i am fairly sure you cannot rip the code off of a programmed device. 

 if i recall, i read that there are certain bits that are set only during the programing phase, and data can only be changed when those bits are set.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  if i recall, i read that there are certain bits that are set only during the programing phase, and data can only be changed when those bits are set.  --- Quote End ---   It's rather the other way around. The device can be freely copied, unless the security bit has been set intentionally.    --- Quote Start ---  I am not quite sure where to start as this is my first time using an Altera product.  --- Quote End ---   Supposed, the boards have the JTAG pins of the device exposed to a 10-pin connector according to the Altera standard, you need an Altera programming adapter (e.g. USB Blaster) and Quartus II or an Altera-standalone-programmer (ASAP) installed.  Read-back the image ("interrogate") and writing it to another device in the programmer window can be done almost intutively.