Electronic – Does ISP mean that the chip has to remain stuck on the system PCB when programmed

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According to wiki "In-System Programming (ISP) is the ability of some programmable logic devices, microcontrollers, and other embedded devices to be programmed while installed in a complete system, rather than requiring the chip to be programmed prior to installing it into the system."

This means that if the device can be programmed after it has left the factory than it supports ISP. We can use JTAG with FPGAs to program them once they are in the field thus this is an example of ISP. Now consider that we have flash devices that need to be pulled out of the system PCB in the field, put into another programmer and once programmed we just put the flash device back onto the PCB. If all this is done outside the factory once the device is in the field, is this also called ISP?

I am asking this question because the term is making me confused here. The device is being programmed after it has left production, but it is being removed from the system when programming is to be done only.

Best Answer

ISP does not require removal of chips from a PCB.

In-System Programming (ISP) is the ability of some programmable logic devices, microcontrollers, and other embedded devices to be programmed while installed in a complete system, rather than requiring the chip to be programmed prior to installing it into the system.

From Wikipedia, my emphasis.

It is not relevant whether programming using ISP is carried out after the product has left the factory.