Hacking USB Gecko.

[xsp]

Following the pictures from Flickr and looking in to the Max II, we can get a good idea of what is going on with the USB Gecko and the Wii U. Now I'm not too familiar with the processor in question as I have only played around with my Gecko for a few weeks, but we can get a clear picture of what is going on here.

• WII U -> USB Gecko
• TP50 -> Clock
• TP51 -> IO
• TP52 -> IO
• TP53 -> IO
• TP138 -> VCCINT (Voltage)
• TP137 -> 0.1uF Capacitor

Can anyone more familiar with the USB Gecko expand on this? Note the error at the top of the image. I listed it as TP138 and it should have been TP137.

 

[obcd]

It's not a processor, it's an fpga. It's original function was to interface the gamecube exi memory slots, but someone with the knowledge could simply reprogram it to a whole different functionallity. U3 is an ftdi chip that transfers 8 bit between the fpga and the usb port. The pc sees the device as a serial port. U2 is a flash chip that is no longer present in the latest generation of usb gecko devices. They also used a different fpga in those. (The blue ones)

 

[xsp]

Thanks for the reply. The last time I did any sort of bare metal programming was when software came on tapes, so I apologize for the lack of knowledge. So we're talking HDL. Verilog seems pretty C friendly.
if (...) begin
...
end
Registers for variables, a bus of registers, etc... Thank you again for the reply. Going to read up on it more tonight.

 

[obcd]

The schematics, pcb layout and fpga code of the usb gecko rev. 1 are freely available on the internet. You also can download a free viewer package to examine all the stuff. If the original code was changed to interface it 2 the wiiu, it could be anything.
I guess you already knew the first.