more ridiculous hw questions

[unkle_psyence]

I've got more silly questions but they didn't fit in the other post, so here goes:

1. What controls the clock of the EE?
2. Has anyone tried to O/C the EE?

3. Regarding distributed apps on the PS2, would I be better off just using the network adapter or can I try and go buckwild with a direct EE to EE serial cable, i.e. if I were trying to put two PS2 mobos in a box and run them as a single system image (with some really intense RTE code of course)... or something. Basically, i can get a second mobo for cheaper than a second PS2 w/ network adapter, and given I try and write the code to do so, could I have them running as a parrallel architecture?

thanks for your patience with me
-unkle

[mrbrown]

You've lost me on #3 here. What exactly are you trying to do?

There are a few people, some who peruse these forums, that know a lot about the internals of the EE hardware and other PS2 systems. Because they all work for or contract to modchip companies, they won't release any of that info publically. For a lot of your questions, if you plan on finding out, you'll have to know how to reverse engineer hardware and prepare to go about it yourself.

[blackdroid]

that third statement is abit funny since the PS2 in itself already is a quite highly parallel machine.

I also dont see much of a point in overclocking any of the processing units, too much of sync headache will render most stuff available for the machine unusable imho.

[unkle_psyence]

alright, that's kinda what I expected to hear. I think i've got a lot of research to do. Only a week before my ps2 gets here! basically, i was really intrigued by what I read about the GScube, and sort of wanted to use some of the idea of having multiple EE processors in a single system. I'll let you all know if I end up doing anything worthwhile.

[splynncryth]

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/ee.ars/1

That sould ginve you an overview of the archetecture involved. Actually, the basics aren't all that hard to understand. It's still a MIPS core with what makes the archetecture special, the vector units, attached as coprocessors. Most of the weirdness is how everything connects together, and what can access what.

Standard practice is for the core to use an internal PLL to multiply the external IO clock. The external clock is probally sythesized by clock chip, but I haven't gone looking for it yet. If you find it and it's programable, you could overclock the FSB. If by some miracle you should find a datasheet and by some other miracle it's in english, there may be a way to change the internal PLL's programming to change the multiplier.

I'd like to see how this turns out, though I fear the network adaptors will prove slow. The expansion ports might be good, but there seems to be a lack of concrete info on it.
Should you get it running, I'd be curious as to how the memory controllers deal with the data. The memory controller, as I understand it, are one of the current reasons the PS2 is 'feeling its age'.

[Guest]

1. What controls the clock of the EE?

The best information on this is in patents filed at uspto.gov.

2. Has anyone tried to O/C the EE?

Possible, but not that I have heard.

3. Regarding distributed apps on the PS2, would I be better off just using the network adapter or can I try and go buckwild with a direct EE to EE serial cable,

You mentioned RTE, so are you talking Linux here ?
It all depends what you want to pass from EE to EE. Serial cables aren't know for speediness. And its not like the EE's main bus will be easy to tap.

Better off focusing on devices attached to the IOP.

[Guest]

There are a few people, some who peruse these forums, that know a lot about the internals of the EE hardware and other PS2 systems. Because they all work for or contract to modchip companies, they won't release any of that info publically. For a lot of your questions, if you plan on finding out, you'll have to know how to reverse engineer hardware and prepare to go about it yourself.

There are a few people, some who peruse these forums, that know a lot about the internals of the EE software and other PS2 APIs. Because they all work for or contract to Sony licensed game companies, they won't release any of that info publically because that will be illegal or against contracts, and they need to make a living.

So for alot of such questions, people need to figure out how to reverse engineer and go about it themselves.

For the OP, fortunately, in both hardware and software cases, I am not contractually bound and will help as I can, but my knowledge is more limited than people who have been around a long time. But like anything, people will either help or they won't. But I have found people will help the more you engage directly with them.

You could try hanging out in IRC EFNET #ps2dev and asking questions there too. You might successfully distract people into talking about ps2dev related topic. ;)