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PS2 Playstation 2 PS2 DTL-T / TOOL Development T10000 T15000 Devkit dev kit thread

hermesconrad

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It's been a while I'm assuming it's as you issue a reset when specifying your elf, just OR the hex/binary you typically issue with this byte set as 1, that should be it to get it into that mode
 

hermesconrad

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@uyjulian wrote this nice gist as well describing it

 

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* Is it possible to use the other three PCI slots from the PC side or the PS2 side?

The PIF is a peripheral PCI slave device on the PCI bus, so AFAIK it cannot become a PCI master and communicate with other PCI devices.
It should be possible to use any of the PCI slots for mostly anything PCI slots can be used for, although there may be a requirement in which slot the SBC must be and also some of the PIF drivers (powercontrol) require the PIF to be connected to PCI slot 0 (if I remember correctly). (Otherwise up to four MRP devices are supported, but in this case the PIF is integrated on the backplane, and it needs to be on a PCI card for this.)
I'll amend this a little, the SBC has to be on the innermost PCI slot, the other 3 PCI slots can be used by it.

Old pictures:
tool3dualvga.jpg
tool3matrox.jpg
tool3win98hardware.jpg
 

slycooper124

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unclejun

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apologies for the stupid question but do you have windows xp running on the tool via the matrix card? I only ask because the pic of the device manager makes it look like that. Or is that your host pc?
I had installed windows 98 on the tool sbc, using the matrox for a 2nd screen to extend or duplicate the screen.
 

slycooper124

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I had installed windows 98 on the tool sbc, using the matrox for a 2nd screen to extend or duplicate the screen.
Wow that's really cool, was it hard to do that or is it as simple as building a computer?
 

uyjulian

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Wow that's really cool, was it hard to do that or is it as simple as building a computer?
Just plug in a CF containing win98 into the TOOL SBC

Of course, you will lose dsnet/mrp functionality, so this is mostly pointless.
 

slycooper124

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Just plug in a CF containing win98 into the TOOL SBC

Of course, you will lose dsnet/mrp functionality, so this is mostly pointless.
ok and im assuming dsnet returns when you put the cf card containing the tool os back dsnet functionality returns?
 

hermesconrad

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Don't recall if it was grub or lilo for thr bootloader but I wonder if it's possible to monitor the state of the front switches that early in the boot process, could be cool to have a dual boot setup with the dvd/emu switch control the OS, pointless ultimately but interesting.

I know it's possible to call grub from linux with the grub-reboot command and choose another partition to reboot into, but at that point you'd have to wait for redhat to fully boot and then check the state of the switches before rebooting back into Windows... Anywho, not important
 

unclejun

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Just plug in a CF containing win98 into the TOOL SBC

Of course, you will lose dsnet/mrp functionality, so this is mostly pointless.
Yes, it was completely pointless.
Don't recall if it was grub or lilo for thr bootloader but I wonder if it's possible to monitor the state of the front switches that early in the boot process, could be cool to have a dual boot setup with the dvd/emu switch control the OS, pointless ultimately but interesting.

I know it's possible to call grub from linux with the grub-reboot command and choose another partition to reboot into, but at that point you'd have to wait for redhat to fully boot and then check the state of the switches before rebooting back into Windows... Anywho, not important
It's definitely lilo, I don't recall grub being used at the time for linux distros by default at that time.
 

hermesconrad

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Y
Yes, it was completely pointless.

It's definitely lilo, I don't recall grub being used at the time for linux distros by default at that time.
Yeh it's been a while since I've fired up my tool, cheers
 

slycooper124

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An excerpt from my old thread "PS2 Tool: Questions" on Assembler Games, with some updated information. Also thanks to wisi for some of this info.
I have a few questions about the PS2 Tool.
* What is MRP?
mrp.o appears to be a Linux kernel module. How does it communicate with the PS2 side? Does it communicate through the serial cable or through the PCI slot?

MRP = Linux kernel Module for the Request Processor (this is a guess)
It is the PC-side driver for the PIF (PC(SBC)/Processor InterFace), which is the big Xilinx FPGA on the backplane (together with the 4 FIFO chips on the bottom side of the backplane).
There are (similar) registers on PC (PCI) and PS2 side, through which communication is done. There two channels - one single byte "serial" port and another that can transfer packets (using DMA as well). DECI2 packets are sent over it.
In the same registers range there are also registers for controlling the power/reset of the PS2 and PC sides, LED control, power button reading, etc. the BID (Board ID) register is there as well. The register range starts at 0xBF803800.

A list of the register ranges under the EXTR (EXTRA) SSBUSC device channel and registers descriptions is attached. It was compiled with the help of SP193.

The PIF/MRP (FPGA) connects through buffers to the PS2 IOP SSBUS and through a PLX PCI9050 PCI<->other buses bridge to the SBC PCI bus.

* Is there any way to disable writing to the Flash ROM?

I do not know of such a way (unless you manually disconnect its write-enable line and set it to inactive state), but depending on the DIP switch on the back, only half of the Flash-ROM will be written on update (AFAIK). But disconnecting the /WE line will also prevent reading the Flash ID and other data, so this won't work correctly.

* How much of the TOOL's internals can you take out/disconnect before basic functionality (running programs on the EE and IOP) will stop working?

In theory the CDVD PCB and the AIF (+Dev9) PCB can be removed and it might even be possible to disconnect the Backplane from the MPU4 board, leaving you with a bare MPU board, that if you power somehow should run as a bare PS2 (with more RAM), but it will probably require emulating some of the signals that connect it with the backplane and will a different ROM image that does not try to initialize the missing components. But if you need it to run as a TOOL, then there is hardly anything that can be disconnected, leaving it still fully-functional (maybe the AIF board only and additional PCI boads?).

(After some time): I took out the following:
CDVD drive (and associated ribbon cable)
AIF HDD
SIO2 ports (controller and memory card)
Eject board (and associated cable)
LED board (and associated cables; showing the status of TOOL/WS and CDVD/EMULATOR modes, as well as one LED for 3 HDDs)

* Is it possible to use the other three PCI slots from the PC side or the PS2 side?

The PIF is a peripheral PCI slave device on the PCI bus, so AFAIK it cannot become a PCI master and communicate with other PCI devices.
It should be possible to use any of the PCI slots for mostly anything PCI slots can be used for, although there may be a requirement in which slot the SBC must be and also some of the PIF drivers (powercontrol) require the PIF to be connected to PCI slot 0 (if I remember correctly). (Otherwise up to four MRP devices are supported, but in this case the PIF is integrated on the backplane, and it needs to be on a PCI card for this.)

* Is there a way to switch to YCbCr mode?

EE argument bit 4 0x00000010 Component video output
0 RGB
1 Y/CrCb

* Is there a way to make the SBC go past the initialization screen faster?
I already disabled the built-in floppy controller, disabled boot seeking, disabled the extended memory checking, set the boot order to C only, and disabled the primary slave HDD.

I can't think of anything more than what you already did. You could try updating the BIOS, and look for a "fast-boot' option.
As for the Linux startup - you could probably edit the bootloader configuration, and the Linux startup scripts.

* Has anyone benchmarked the speed of the SBC PCI<->IOP yet?
I'm curious if this is faster than the speed of an HDD connected to the Network Adapter.

It should be very fast compared to PS2 Ethernet connection speed, but I think it is at least two to five times slower than the PS2 internal HDD. The maximum transfer rate on the IOP is ~120MB/s, and when transferring data between a peripheral device (SPEED chip - HDD) and the EE it is half that ~50MB/s. The SPEED chip SSBUSC channel is configured to the fastest SSBUSC settings (and so is the CDVD device if I remember correctly). But the EXTRA SSBUS channel uses lower speeds - at least twice lower, but I don't know for sure (because of the multiple buffers between the SSBUS and the PIF FPGA). Also the PCI interface limits the maximum speed somewhat.
So it is probably the second or third fastest peripheral device after the internal HDD.

* Are there any upgrades or replacements for the SBC?

I have read about this on the forums (but I don't remember the thread). On the PS2 TOOL, the SBC was meant only as a communication processor and no work was done directly on it. (almost quoting SP193)
Also given that Ethernet is used to connect it to the development PC(s), it probably didn't need to be particularly fast.
On the PA DTL-T15000 (AFAIK) there is a dedicated MCU connecting the main sampling FPGA to the PIF FPGA and/or PCI bridge, which probably enables faster transfers of sampled data to the network (but I don't know exactly how this system works).

* Misc information about my system

Since it was sold with broken plastic casing, I put it to the side, intending to fix it later.
I trashed most of the foam and copper tape.
I used a compressed gas duster to clean out most of the dust.
I replaced the HDD connected to the PC SBC with a CF card.

I might take out the TOOL/WS/CDVD/EMU switch board, since its primary function (ROM swap) can be replicated by DIP switch #1 (1-indexed, away from the PSU)
(At the end, I just left it in, since it's easier to switch it and the cable isn't that long)
hey, im updating my guide and posting a new link here in a few minutes, do you happen to have anymore info I can add to it to make the too more user friendly to noobs and veteran too owners?

also I just tried a retail pal game on my tool and I get the same error ive been getting. (this is not a PlayStation 2 disc. Unknown disc is detected.) so in your opinion do you think the laser is shot?
 

uyjulian

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hey, im updating my guide and posting a new link here in a few minutes, do you happen to have anymore info I can add to it to make the too more user friendly to noobs and veteran too owners?
Not at this time. I may have more programs and documentation prepared in December.

also I just tried a retail pal game on my tool and I get the same error ive been getting. (this is not a PlayStation 2 disc. Unknown disc is detected.) so in your opinion do you think the laser is shot?
Try a master patched disc. If it still doesn't work probably laser is issue.
 

slycooper124

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Not at this time. I may have more programs and documentation prepared in December.


Try a master patched disc. If it still doesn't work probably laser is issue.
Ok ill try master patching the disc. If the laser is the culprit. Then that means adjusting the potentiometer is just a bandaid. I've heard the scph 10k retail system from japan uses the same laser. Is anybody you know refurbishing those?
 

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