Firewire

Interface for

Sony

Hardware

 

 

 

 

What is this project?

 

The aim of the project is to provide a Firewire interface for the V12 version PSTwo. The PSTwo is the last model of Sony console and is no more  equipped with a firewire (i-Link interface). We don’t think that USBXTREME is a good solution as the speed is too slow. We have the idea to make a Firewire interface with a few friends so everyone can connect an external hard disk and appreciate games on their hard disk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More details…

Ok guys, I know you need some photos, the only photo we have is only a prototype and it is no use. We don’t have anything to prove. Only time will tell if the project works.

 

We use an IDE-Pocket Analyser from DHS to valid all IDE data transfers to the drive. The external drive is a MAXTOR with FIREWIRE adaptor but any other drive will fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why this chip?

 

 

We chose this not so cheap chip (;-:) for several reasons : Yu is the chief, Yu is the one who decide and Yu works in a well known electronic firm and have access to a lot of information, dev kits and chips…. Last reason is that this chip can be copy protected so like no one can steal our project as PS2….

 

Furthermore this project can be more ambitious as this chip is the low step to the PCI7621 device family, which is a high-performance, low-cost integrated solution that provides the latest in Flash Media, PC Card and Smart Card technology. Yes it sound like an ad…but it is real…(Yu said so)…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some essential information

All of our technical reverse-engineering wouldn’t have been possible if Sony have not included some essential information in his hardware. For those who don’t know, the first PS2 included a firewire connector. Even if this interface is no more available in the PSTwo, the  console remembers the interface, in terms of electronics and bios. Sony is part of a consortium of eight consumer electronics companies (Grundig, Hitachi, Matsushita (Panasonic), Philips, Sharp, Sony, Thomson, and Toshiba) who define the standard HAVi (Home Audio Video Interoperability) (see link) which means that they wanted to go

The elements left in the console are sufficient to allow our kind of device to function.

 

USB 2.0 vs FireWire

 

Why we choose Firewire and not USB 2.0. It is not a matter of speed, we could just make an

IDE interface but we believe in the power of Firewire (sounds good?) and it goes far beyond

the simple need of an hard disk on you console.

Here are the main technical characteristics of both interfaces :

FireWire (or IEEE1394)

  1. Faster : 100 Mbit/s 200Mbit/s 400Mbit/s supported
  2. Works without control and devices are peer-to-peer
  3. The cable may be up to 4.5 m
  4. Support 63 devices
  5. Power supply to external devices is 1.25A/12V (max.)
  6. Can be used in digital video cameras

 

USB 2.0

  1. Throughput of 1.5 Mbit/s 12Mbit/s 480Mbit/s
  2. A controller is required to control the bus and data transfer
  3. The length of the cable is up to 5 m
  4. Up to 127 devices are supported
  5. Power supply to external devices is as low as 500 mA/5V
  6. It is fully compatible with USB 1.1 devices

As you can see, the main advantage is linked to the video cameras.

 

 

The Team

 

We are 3 persons from all around the world A guy whose pseudo is Agathe comes from Quebec (like Celine Dion). The electronic guy who do all hardware stuff is a Japanese called Yu (not me) and who like COSPLAY. The last one but not least is me …Babe (like the film not the girl).But we have received a lot of help for the PS2DEV site and other programmers and I personally thank the PIZZA guy from my town…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact

 

Don’t ask any details about delay, price as this is only a project and we don’t have much

time. Money makers please stay away! We are and will stay a free project…We would

provide all software as source, here on this site. But we need another electronic specialist,

if you think you have time and can handle this, just join us.

 

mailto:fishproject@free.fr?subject=help required

 

 

Proof of Concept?

 

We will release this on April for a demo, we will add a video link here.

 

 

The future

 

This project is very enthusiastic as it can be widely extended to a lot of other projects. As

we provide a firewire interface it can be used to plug any device as a camera for video

acquisition. We can change the main board of our prototype to include some different

chip to allow reading of memory devices as smc cards or so on.

 

 

The links

 

I would like to thank the guy there at Metagames who has

made this page because it was just an april’s fool, in French

it is called “un poisson d’avril”…or a FISH….

 

http://www.metagames-eu.com

 

http://www.ti.com/corp/docs/landing/tsb43da42/index.html

 

http://focus.ti.com/docs/pr/pressrelease.jhtml?prelId=sc04170

 

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1154745,00.asp

http://www.alex-bieber.de/j1394cam/

http://jlibdc1394.sourceforge.net/

http://www.dhs-tools.de/index_products_ataatapi_eng.htm