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DS development > GBA emulator for iplayer progress updated

#169488 - darkchen - Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:19 am

Hi~ I?m back. I want to continue the topic of GBA emulator for iplayer. Unfortunately, iplayer official refused to give me SDK, for considering copyright problems. But finally I have obtained SDK in other way what I?d like to keep secret. I beg you guys forgiveness.

Ok, let?s back to the topic. Now, I? m analyzing the content of SDK. If you have read my previous post, you would have understand my idea, although you might not agree wity me, thinking it is impossible to emulate GBA by iplayer(my poor English ability may be a problem, I can not express everything perfectly). I consider It?s hard to write program all by myself. Fortunately I?m familiar with VBA (visual boy advanced), the PC platform GBA emulator, so first, I?m trying to migrate VBA form PC to iplayer. If it succeeded, it would suppose to be the best way. Before migration, I?d like to compare the parameter between GBA and iplayer.

Video interface port: GBA screen resolution: 240 X 160. 32,768 colors simultaneously displayable, Special effects features (rotation/scaling, a blending, fade-in/fade-out, and mosaic), 4 image system modes

(I insist on iplayer has the ability to deal with it, because of high resolution video playing)

Audio interface port: 4 sounds (corresponding to CGB sounds) + 2 CPU direct sounds (PCM format)

(Due to iplayer audio formats MP3, WMA, FLAC, APE, and the maximum bit rate supporting, I think there is no problem)

According to the comparison, we should know the hardware interface meet the requirement, and DS buttons number is more than enough. First, I need to migrate video interface port, so that I could migrate PC keyboard control to DS D-pad control. Second, it would be the audio interface port migration. I?m going to put my hand to the migration work in the future days, and because of my job, I have little time to be utilized, such as weekend and the nights after off-duty. If I made any progress, I would tell you. Wish it would be smooth going.

GBA emulator for iplayer progress updated

More than one week has passed since I have got SDK, and I?was down to the GBA emulator development (in fact it calls migration of VBA) in this period.It almost took all my spare time. Now, I have made some progress what I?d like to share with you, that the video interface port migration has already completed. Depends on the effect of the games which I have tested, I think it is considered as success. Super Mario Advance and Super Robot War J is two of the games I have tested, which its photos is below, and the FPS is not bad, but I?m not sure that if I migrated audio interface port, it would still have a not too bad FPS.

Next step I will try to migrate audio interface port, and I wish everything will be OK. If I have any further progress, I will update this post. I will also update my blog: http://darkchen.blog.com


[Images not permitted - Click here to view it]

[Images not permitted - Click here to view it]

Last edited by darkchen on Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:58 am; edited 2 times in total

#169489 - DiscoStew - Fri Jul 17, 2009 5:38 am

darkchen wrote:
Unfortunately, iplayer official refused to give me SDK, for considering copyright problems. But finally I have obtained SDK in other way what I?d like to keep secret.


You do know that you just informed everyone here that you illegally obtained that SDK, right?
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#169491 - elwing - Fri Jul 17, 2009 6:17 am

darkchen wrote:
Unfortunately, iplayer official refused to give me SDK, for considering copyright problems.


that's quite normal, they have found a real goldmine until other people start to make fakes iplayer (which I guess could take much longer than a simple flashcard...)

#169492 - darkchen - Fri Jul 17, 2009 7:13 am

DiscoStew wrote:
darkchen wrote:
Unfortunately, iplayer official refused to give me SDK, for considering copyright problems. But finally I have obtained SDK in other way what I?d like to keep secret.


You do know that you just informed everyone here that you illegally obtained that SDK, right?


I'm sorry to make you think that.

In fact I do really want to inform everyone here that there is possibility to develop GBA emulator on iplayer cart, so that playing GBA games on DS will come true.

#169493 - eKid - Fri Jul 17, 2009 7:26 am

Isn't it possible to just develop a GBA emulator for the DS? Natively running the code and catching register IO with exceptions?

#169494 - elwing - Fri Jul 17, 2009 7:58 am

eKid wrote:
Isn't it possible to just develop a GBA emulator for the DS? Natively running the code and catching register IO with exceptions?


or building something like a static recompiler from gba -> ds?

#169499 - TwentySeven - Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:27 am

Or y'know, plugging a gba cart into the GBA cartridge slot on a NDS or NDSL.

#169501 - DiscoStew - Sat Jul 18, 2009 4:23 pm

He did mention the DSi in his other post.
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#169502 - Apache Thunder - Sat Jul 18, 2009 6:18 pm

TwentySeven wrote:
Or y'know, plugging a gba cart into the GBA cartridge slot on a NDS or NDSL.


FYI, the DSi doesn't have a GBA slot! Looks to still have the CPU hardware for it. Just not the slot.

Has anyone with a DSi and flashcart been able to use DSSision (or similer app that can boot the DS GBA mode) to boot GBA mode? I wonder if GBA mode still exists on the DSi.
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#169524 - sonny_jim - Mon Jul 20, 2009 12:59 pm

Why did you start a new thread? Why not just carry on the other one here?

So, what is the theory of operation for this GBA emulator? FPGA on iplayer runs GBA emulator, squirts video data down SPI bus? I don't think you quite understand what's involved.

Quote:

I do really want to inform everyone here that there is possibility to develop GBA emulator on iplayer cart,

I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just saying it would be a total waste of time considering you can buy a GBA for the price of an iPlayer.

p.s Of course, this GBA emulator will be for homebrew only?
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Quote:

Would that be the internet driver for the program?

#169568 - darkchen - Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:57 am

GBA emulator for iplayer progress

#169572 - TwentySeven - Fri Jul 24, 2009 8:33 am

I have to admit I was 100% sceptical. But the fact you've stepped up and gotten as far as you have, well done.

#170389 - Echo49 - Sun Sep 20, 2009 9:52 pm

Looks like he's done it:
http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/09/20/150242/GBA-Emulator-Released-For-the-DSi

edit: I'm not sure if that link is against the rules, so please remove it if it is.

#170390 - sonny_jim - Sun Sep 20, 2009 11:44 pm

Yeah, I feel a bit of a dick now ;-)

Still, I'd love to know how he did it.
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Quote:

Would that be the internet driver for the program?

#170401 - Exophase - Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:12 pm

sonny_jim wrote:
Yeah, I feel a bit of a dick now ;-)

Still, I'd love to know how he did it.


Take gpSP, port it to iPlayer using illegitimately obtained SDK, throw in fancy GUI and intro screen, et voila.

Anyone still confused at this point might not understand that the iPlayer has an SoC in it, probably a TMS320DM35x, which has an ARM9 and can go up to 270MHz. It also has a 4MB flash chip and a 32MB 16bit SDRAM chip, and what could be an FPGA of some sort - the latter possibly providing glue logic to convert an external memory interface to something that can drive the gamecard bus.

For what you get and what they're selling it for it's actually a pretty interesting purchase.

#170402 - sonny_jim - Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:40 pm

It seems noone is too sure what chips are inside the iPlayer. I'll crack mine open tonight and take some pics, hopefully it'll have more than TMS320 printed on the chip.

And from what I've read, it is definitely gbSP, I saw a post from the author of gbSP saying that this has the same bugs. The fact that gbSP is GPL does muddy the waters somewhat.

Also I have a little theory about the SDK:

[tinfoilhat]

It seems a little too convenient that in the space of one week darkchen managed to figure out the SDK and get something running without any assistance from the manufacturers.

I think it's more likely that iPlayer helped 'unofficially' after darkchen explained that they could have the only DSi capable GBA cart on the market.

The reason iPlayer did not 'officially' help darkchen is probably due to licensing restrictions on the SDK/hardware.

[/tinfoilhat]

So, am I right in thinking that the large majority of the work is done on the iPlayer cpu (whatever it is) and all the DS is doing is showing video and passing back button presses to the iPlayer? This seems logical, as it is what the card was built to do in the first place.
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Quote:

Would that be the internet driver for the program?

#170406 - Exophase - Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:44 pm

gpSP, not gbSP ;p

From the pictures posted here you can clearly see TMS320DM, which is a line of TI DSPs. You can also clearly see that the second number is a 5 and the letters are "AZWG." The site went on to misidentify the chip as "TMS320DM6541", considering this equivalent to TMS320DM6441 (that number being a 4 IS significant, since that chip has a C64x DSP). If you look closely you can see that the first number looks more like a 3 or an 8 than a 6, although to be an 8 the typeface would have to have the top circle be smaller than the bottom one, which seems uncommon.

You're not the only one to think that darkchen is working with the iPlayer people, but who knows.

#170409 - sonny_jim - Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:36 pm

Ok, I just stripped mine apart and got my mate to take some pics
(Warning, these might be huge)

http://two.xthost.info/iplayerpics

It's definitely, positively, clearly a TMS320 DM6541 AZWG

AML3405 VQ1000905 CC180Z9801

Hynix 537A HY57V5616Z0CLT-HI 36CAX702TQ3
http://www.hynix.com/datasheet/pdf/dram/HY57V561620C(L)T-xI(Rev0.1).pdf

SST 39VF040 datasheet

I'll add in the urls for the datasheets as I find them
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Quote:

Would that be the internet driver for the program?


Last edited by sonny_jim on Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:02 pm; edited 2 times in total

#170410 - Exophase - Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:06 pm

I don't know what this chip is, but TI does not make a TMS320DM6541. They don't make a C65x line of DSPs either. I also find it very hard to imagine that TI is making a custom chip for a Chinese DS flash card. The TMS320DM6441 line of chips cost at least $33, nearly the cost of the whole iPlayer. Also, the chips look like this: http://media.digikey.com/photos/Texas%20Instr%20Photos/TMS320DM6441ZWT.JPG So I think we can rule those out.

It looks like the chip's surface was ground off - I wonder why they would do that when the others didn't have that treatment? Maybe the label we're seeing now was added on top of the original one. This could be a chip that isn't even made by TI but is being rebranded by something that sounds close to something that is, possibly in order to deceive people.

#170411 - sonny_jim - Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:48 pm

Quote:
It looks like the chip's surface was ground off

That's just left over glue from the label that was stuck on it, I think. I didn't want to scrub it too much in case the lettering came off.

Quote:

TI does not make a TMS320DM6541. They don't make a C65x line of DSPs

Could it be that they just haven't advertised that they do yet? (Unlikely)

Quote:

Also, the chips look like this:

Hmm, now you mention it, it is a bit suspect that they don't have any TI logo on them anywhere.

Quote:
This could be a chip that isn't even made by TI but is being rebranded

True, that makes sense. Make a chip that delivers similar functions and call it a similar name maybe not so much to deceive but to give people an idea of what it does. I'm thinking this is probably the likely answer.
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Quote:

Would that be the internet driver for the program?

#170412 - Exophase - Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:36 pm

sonny_jim wrote:
That's just left over glue from the label that was stuck on it, I think. I didn't want to scrub it too much in case the lettering came off.


Huh, really? That makes sense then.. didn't know why they'd grind off only one of them.

sonny_jim wrote:
that they just haven't advertised that they do yet? (Unlikely)


I don't think this could be the case, TI puts up product pages well in advance before you can buy them or even sample them. Sometimes many months.

sonny_jim wrote:

Hmm, now you mention it, it is a bit suspect that they don't have any TI logo on them anywhere.


Yeah, I've seen tons of TI chips and all but the absolute tiniest manage to squeeze in the TI logo.

sonny_jim wrote:

True, that makes sense. Make a chip that delivers similar functions and call it a similar name maybe not so much to deceive but to give people an idea of what it does. I'm thinking this is probably the likely answer.


I'm doubtful that it'd deliver similar functionality for a much lower price, it'd probably be something totally different. Gives me reason to go back to MIPS, which a lot of Chinese chips are these days. If it's not a TI chip then they'd definitely like for people to think that it is, there's nothing genuine about such a practice. Unfortunately it wouldn't surprise me because this sort of thing happens a lot in China.

#170444 - cornaljoe - Sat Sep 26, 2009 7:05 am

Could we possibly see a TI-92 emu using the iPlayer?

#170446 - Dwedit - Sat Sep 26, 2009 2:01 pm

The DS is powerful enough to emulate a TI92 without any help.
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#170448 - cornaljoe - Sat Sep 26, 2009 5:19 pm

Dwedit wrote:
The DS is powerful enough to emulate a TI92 without any help.


Really? I heard it wasn't. The coder of WabbitDS, the TI-83 emu, said it wasn't possible iirc.

Edit: Just checked and I was wrong. He just stated he never tried emulating other calcs so it would take him some time if he tried.

Time to start a reform to get a TI-92 emu! WabbitDS looks so professional. I would love to see it support other calcs. Maybe we can get Jim to work on one!