Flashrom is a utility for reading, writing, verifying and erasing flash ROM chips. It supports a wide range of DIP32 (Dual In-line Package, 32 pins), PLCC32 (Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier, 32 pins ), DIP8 (Dual In-line Package, 8 pins ), SO8/SOIC8, TSOP32-40 (Thin Small-Outline Package, 32 and 40 pins) chips, which use various protocols such as LPC, FWH (Firmware Hub), parallel flash, or SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface). It is run from user space but flashing requires superuser privileges. It supports various mainboards, over 150 flash chip families, 75 chipsets, cross-flashing and hot-flashing. It can also be used to read the current existing BIOS/firmware from a flash chip. For more informations click here. Note: an incorrect use of this software may damage your hardware!