Hacking DS-Xtreme OpenSource Firmware Project

[gedly]

The FPGA will be connected to "whatever" and always be running, so I suppose it can do whatever the actual cart connections can let you do (sounds jibberish but sorta makes sense). You could also have the FPGA running as a second DSP/Processor... doing what is upto the imagination (3D, MPEG decoder, full blown emulator of ?)


I wonder how big a memory space it could be configured to pretend to be? I'm thinking opera browser without needing a slot 2 card.....

It depends on how Opera was coded. It probably wouldn't work though. But, it could be very beneficial for a homebrew web browser.

Yeah...and other things for that matter, ds linux etc

 

[teonintyfive]

The FPGA will be connected to "whatever" and always be running, so I suppose it can do whatever the actual cart connections can let you do (sounds jibberish but sorta makes sense). You could also have the FPGA running as a second DSP/Processor... doing what is upto the imagination (3D, MPEG decoder, full blown emulator of ?)

What WHAT WHAT
Like, how powerful?

 

[throwingks]

What WHAT WHAT
Like, how powerful?

Allegedly, the DS-X can be more powerful than the DS it supports. However, in reality, it is only as powerful as the programmers coding for it.

 

[reveng]

Allegedly, the DS-X can be more powerful than the DS it supports. However, in reality, it is only as powerful as the programmers coding for it.

MMMMm "the programmers coding for it"

Quick examinations of the cleverness

Whilst hard at it coding away at an update for all his DSX customers, Dinopio Pastos (Dino) miraculously uncovers a hack for the IPHone! Brilliantly clever hack unlocks the IPhone..
Apple responce to brillaint hack.....BRICKED IPhone

Now there's top notch coders at their best...

 

[gedly]

If Opera is already on the GBA then it just needs porting from GBA to DS in a homebrew project.
Contact the developer and ask him for the source, then start a homebrew project.

Does not need any inner secrets of the DSX cart to do that, a simple homebrew project.

Sorry not been around much, some new projects kicking off at work.

Hey - this could be serious pie in the sky here, but would it be theoretically possible for the launcher or even a .NDS to write a new configuration to the FPGA on demand? So you load, say, MAME and the FPGA is configured as an additional cpu or support chipset, you load a browser and it reconfigures as memory, you load a .gba and it reconfigures as a "GBAdvance on a chip"...you get the idea...now if that was possible, the app would contain the config for the fpga that it requires, negating the need for an agreed custom config for the fpga. The developer would develop their .nds code and the fgpa config together (or I could see a growth in "off the shelf" fpga configs for homebrewers to use if fpga "programming" was out of their league).

Now that would be pants wettingly powerful. But I could be suggesting something that is just a non starter.

 

[reveng]

Now that would be pants wettingly powerful. But I could be suggesting something that is just a non starter.

Hey Gedly,
Yeah the possiblities are endless, not sure if you could config the FPGA from the launcher side, but it would be cool

..

You should be able to config it from the updater, you see why im keen to disassemble the updater and uncover some secrets

Wish I had more time to dedicate, work getting in the way of fun :'(

 

[gedly]

Now that would be pants wettingly powerful.  But I could be suggesting something that is just a non starter.

Hey Gedly,
Yeah the possiblities are endless, not sure if you could config the FPGA from the launcher side, but it would be cool

..

You should be able to config it from the updater, you see why im keen to disassemble the updater and uncover some secrets

Wish I had more time to dedicate, work getting in the way of fun :'(

Yes, the best scenario is for the dsx team to hand over the source so you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Is there any chance of this if we asked them nicely? Or at least open a dialogue with them?

I suppose it would also require an official "abandonment" - if the team is supposed to still be working on the product they wouldn't want to hand anything over as if people bricked their cart with an open souce firmware they'd still try and log support tickets with the dsx team...

 

[reveng]

Yes, the best scenario is for the dsx team to hand over the source so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. 

Is there any chance of this if we asked them nicely?  Or at least open a dialogue with them?

O.K here goes

TeamDSX/Xodus any chance you could help out with our homebrew project by giving us the firmware, updater and launcher source?

Also the electrical schematics of the circuit board would be lovely.

It would help us alot guys.

 

[OSW]

I don't see how they would have anything to lose turning over their source, or other required info.

If indeed unofficial developers can improve the card firmware, that should satisfy the customers better and produce more sales (if they are still getting any)

 

[reveng]

I don't see how they would have anything to lose turning over their source.

If indeed unofficial developers can improve the card firmware, that should satisfy the customers better and produce more sales (if they are still getting any)

Well improve is not the word I would use, maybe enhance or experiment is better, they did do an awesome job to create and code the cart in the first place, that would be most difficult to improve upon.

And your right, what have they got to lose?

 

[MrSpud]

Just curious, is this true?

Rabid1 said:

The open source firmware that reveng is working on, as it stands now, will only be for homebrew. He has stated he will not work on any rom compatibility.

Just wondering, I don't believe anything Rabid1 says(Firmware coming soon!). Is there more to it? Thank you.

 

[reveng]

Just curious, is this true?

Rabid1 said:

The open source firmware that reveng is working on, as it stands now, will only be for homebrew. He has stated he will not work on any rom compatibility.

Just wondering, I don't believe anything Rabid1 says(Firmware coming soon!). Is there more to it? Thank you.

Hey MrSpud,
Yeah, he's quite right, My interest is in homebrew and hardware, so we can play with anything we want.

But....

Thats not to stop others putting in compatabilty if they wished, hopefully at some point we will have the source available.
If others would like to patch loaders in the launcher..ect.. Thats for other to decide...

 

[MrSpud]

Ok, cool! I suppose you need to learn to crawl before you learn to walk! Keep up the good work(It's all Japanese to me)

I wouldn't count on the source, most likely they don't want anyone to see what programming mess they did, better start from scratch.

 

[ZeXr0]

Hey, keep up the good work, I've been reading the topic since yesterday. (took me a while to read everything). That's a good project, and I think that it will do exactly the same as the Ps2. Boost the sales. If there's a product, that is open source, that everyone can update, it will be a success

I hope that it will come to an end, and not die like 10000000000000000000 project before it.

Keep up the good work, you do an amasing job

 

[reveng]

Hey, keep up the good work, I've been reading the topic since yesterday. (took me a while to read everything). That's a good project, and I think that it will do exactly the same as the Ps2. Boost the sales. If there's a product, that is open source, that everyone can update, it will be a success

I hope that it will come to an end, and not die like 10000000000000000000 project before it.

Keep up the good work, you do an amasing job

Hey ZeXro,
Thanx for the comments, I'll try and see it thru to the end, not promising it will be quick, can only afford so much time per week. But its quite good fun and its sharpening up some old skills I havent used for awhile

 

[reveng]

A little update on the project,

Sorry not much works gone on this week, due to spending alot of time in airports. I also spent a little time on some R4DS research as you have seen in the other thread...

I'm still doing the learing curve withe the IDA Pro disassembler, I'm looking at if its possible to get the disassembler to recognise some of the other librarys that are in the updater code, such as the CYAPI, so the output is a little more meaning full.

There was some loose communication with the DSX team about moving the topic back onto their forums, which was nice but declined, due to a worry about censorship and I think all the people in the "KNOW" are here in these forums.

I must stress to the DSX company, I am not after cloning their hardware or stealing their firmware, its just an interesting little project hopefully to enable people to experiment with their hadware and software, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks to everyone for the PM's with various versions of updaters and repair tools, I've piled them all into one folder on my PC to look thru when I have a mo.

Thats where we are at

 

[reveng]

I'm still doing the learing curve withe the IDA Pro disassembler, I'm looking at if its possible to get the disassembler to recognise some of the other librarys that are in the updater code, such as the CYAPI, so the output is a little more meaning full.


QUOTEFLAIR -- Fast Library Acquisition for Identification and Recognition
====================================================================

FLAIR utilities allow you to create your own signature files from
OBJECT or LIBRARY files for IDA Pro v3.8 or higher.

This seems to be the plugin for IDA to add recognition for librarys, I'm playing with it now.
If anyone has used it before a few pointers would not go amiss?

 

[reveng]

O.K after much messing around I've managed to get IDA Pro to recognise the Cypress CYAPI.LIB in the disassembly.

Here's a link for the IDA Pro signature file for the Cypress CYAPI.LIB library, for anyone playing with the disassembler.

http://wiki.gbatemp.net/images/2/2d/Bc6cyapi.sig

Next its get IDA Pro to recognize the ZLIB Inflate (zlib1.dll), Indy and Altera Jam librarys.

 

[golden]

I think the ability to run GBA roms without any patching and a slot 2 card might be a worthwhile line of pursuit

It's impossible to run GBA code in NDS mode without the use of a expansion pack to load the ROM from.

 

[throwingks]

^ from what I understand, you are right. It is a bandwidth issue. The DS-Slot just isn't fast enough. Even with the FPGA adding extra power it won't matter. The transfer rates are the bottleneck.