I have found a Syncmos sm8951ac25pp, on a board dismantled from an old money counting machine, which as far as I can make out just needs connecting to a serial port to erase and re-program it. I'd quite like to have a tinker with it, flash some LEDs, whatever. It would be a useful learning exercise if nothing else.
I also have, bought long ago, a USB to serial converter (I think Connexant but I don't have it to hand to check) with which I failed to make a working serial port PIC programmer about 15 years ago. Now, I'm given to understand that my original project didn't work because the timings with these converters aren't quite right, so I was using a dodgy thing to attempt a dodgy thing. But 8951 needs a direct connection with no funky stuff in between - I think. So do you think it will work?
If not, I found a project for an Arduino based programmer - which seems overkill, but I am starting from a place of deep ignorance here...