32MB mod pictures and new site

[kraahl]

gp32spain.com offers €60 to anyone who creates a bios that can use 32MB of ram. The guy who made this should collect it.

 

[STRIDER_YUZO]

It seem like the only concern would be in using Mr.Spivs 32mb updated firmware. I had a problem installing his FW and nearly lost my gp32- But I managed to flash it with the European fw- which is awesome. If mr spiv can put togather an FW that is as easy to install as this one, life would be awesome. The europeanFW interface would be nice to see in this new config. or maybe an Amiga desktop

I realized that the bios may have to be reconfigured to enable running older progs- for example - before entering the desktop, one would have to select 8 or 32Mb ram configurations- otherwise, the 32mb jump may lead to a gp32 with absolutely no functionality. Or maybe pressing l+R at startup would enable the ram menu. Just an idea.

I'm going out to look at ram today. Hope I find some at a reasonable price.

Steve-o, would you be willing to take on modding gp32s for others? If I find any success on my end, I may consider it too. Besides, this looks a lot more interesting than modding a psx- which im glad I dont do anymore.

Cheers,
Yuzo

 

[papapopalung]

so the RAM upgrade doesn't make original software incompatible, huh? it's actually looking quite tempting...

 

[STRIDER_YUZO]

Whoops, looks like I was a bit late in catching robs update here.

So- knowing that everything runs well- I'm all for it

Thanks again rob

Cheers,
yUzo :lol:

 

[GP32 Kirby]

Although no older programs will become incompatible once the GP32 has been upgraded, will their performance increase or must the program source be edited and re-compiled to access the other 24MB of ram?

It would be interesting to see a (hacked version?) of SNES9xGP utilizing all 32MBs of ram to up the performance, maybe we'll get 100% speed with sound doing this.. just maybe..

 

[STRIDER_YUZO]

I just hope someone comes along and does a full-on snes emu in asm !! Untill then, im happy with what i have Playing those yummy SNES rpgs with great speed and full sound would be nice. And with 32mb ram? Tales of fantasia, Star Ocean and Far east of EDEN Zero would be a reality then. :blink: Woah! Thats an intense thought.

Ok, enough dreaming- im on my way to the computer chop shop.

Cheers,
YuzO

 

[seth]

from what i understand its backwards compatible meaning

the 3d2mb one could play 8 mb ones but the 8mb one couldnt play 32mbs ones

 

[Steve-O]

Steve-o, would you be willing to take on modding gp32s for others? If I find any success on my end, I may consider it too. Besides, this looks a lot more interesting than modding a psx- which im glad I dont do anymore.

I Think I would be too scared to open up other peoples GP32's incase of damaging them . If I decide to do it to mine and it works I might But Im going to wait untill the Guarantee runs out like I did with my PS2

 

[Steve-O]

Would GBA Emulation be possible with 32MB Ram (or is it the CPU thats the problem)?????

 

[Racemaniac]

hmmm, if it's fully backward compatible, i think i'm gonna upgrade mine
we've got every tool you could possibly need to perform this mod safely , and i'm sure i got some old SDram somewhere

 

[mr.spiv]

I realized that the bios may have to be reconfigured to enable running older progs- for example - before entering the desktop, one would have to select 8 or 32Mb ram configurations- otherwise, the 32mb jump may lead to a gp32 with absolutely no functionality. Or maybe pressing l+R at startup would enable the ram menu. Just an idea.

I don't know where you did get this assumption but of course the latest 32M capable MultiFW2 (also now available in ROb's site) is backward compatible.. which required patching also other things than just the ram controller and MMU setup. The only thing is that you screw up if you install 32M capable BIOS to a GP32 with only 8M as there is no dynamic memory configuration (i.e. the BIOS is hardcoded to support certain amount of memory - it doesn't try to find out if there is 8, 16 or 32M available).

 

[mr.spiv]

from what i understand its backwards compatible meaning

the 3d2mb one could play 8 mb ones but the 8mb one couldnt play 32mbs ones

Depending how well the SDK memory management wrapper turns out, probrams compiled with 32M aware libs should also work in 8M GP32 (assuming they don't try to allocate too huge memory blocks, that won't fit into 8M). The intention is to make this RAM stuff as transparent as possible. And I know e.g. Rob is able to do
such memory wrapping stuff hands down <_<

 

[Magic Knight]

hmm, sounds a bit dodgy to me - but a fine breakthrough

here we are sat here with an expansion port doing nothing... i'm hoping someone will design external ram which will could be accessed that way