Flashchip Upgrade

[empee]

I'm planning on upgrading my gp32's (and maybe spiv's if i get mine working) flash chip.
The original is Atmel AT49BV040-90VC 512k byte (8bit wide) bios flash and i'm planning on replacing it with
Sharp LH28F128BFHED-PWTL90 128mbit flash memory or something similar.

If any electronics guys have anything to say about this working please say it as i'm not too familiar with all the stuff that needs to be considered..
i know i need _few_ jump wires as the original chip has 19 address pins and 8 i/o pins and the new one has 22 address pins and 16 i/o pins.

I've sent sample request to sharp but if someone else can find 128mbit 48tsop or 32tsop packed parallel flash chip (not nand) for me it would be nice.

I'm not the one soldering this b*tch but someone else is and no, i wont sell these after i've got it working so dont even ask.

And please, no b*tching about how usefull this is or aint .. i know already

//markus p

 

[finty]

what will this do to your gp32? i mean what advantages will it give you?

 

[Octavious]

yay, sounds interseting
I know a guy who did the 32ram upgrade and i soddered for him...
dont know much for help tho..
anyways... what will this do
going from an 8 to a 128 sounds good number wise atleast
however, there might be a problem with elctricity, or i would think so....

but anyways, ya what will this do to the gp32? if its good , we should bug mash about it...
sorry mash, someones gonna do it prolly before I bug you

~Octavious

o ya, post lots of pictures of this mod and tell us what you are doing in detail
plz

 

[empee]

it's not the ram i'm upgrading .. it's the flash rom that has bios&menu (firmware as some ppl call it)
i got offer for 5chips 25euros each .. i'm going to buy 2 but need someone else buying these too to get the 5 ..

i can make simple guide how to make the mod but you need to have damn good eyes to solder it 0.5mm stuff

//markus p

 

[washo]

actually the question is :
what is the use of this mod?????
if it is usefull then maybe a lot will be interested

see you :lol:

 

[mattmagoo]

Octavious, u keep saying soddering, and i assume u mean soldering, everytime u say soddering i piss myself, it just sounds funny. I got a keen eye for soldering, shame i can only do it at college coz i dont have a soldering iron

 

[Spaz O Mataz]

This is a good idea as you can put more into the bios and startup program. you could put a cupple of big games into this so you save space. the only thing is what do you plan on putting on your new big flash chip?

 

[angrypants]

whats the point of adding a new flash rom to the gp32. You can already flash your firmware on the chip thats already there. I don't see the point in adding a new flash rom chip. Even if it has more space for larger firmware whats the point?

 

[Horscht]

you could have EVERY usefull prog on your GP and wouldnt have to transfer it via the bad PC-Link prog (you know, COMI, GPdrive, Wind-Ups, Yafl, euro fw,and other stuff.)

 

[lizard808uk]

The new Aquafish firmware allows loading of external firmware .bin files from SMC. I have Aqua 4.5 with Spiv MultiFW 2 and Windups 1.0 as an FXE in the boot menu. This mod sounds interesting, but I don't know what it'll accomplish. :blink:

 

[Delsabre]

I believe the purpose of this is really fast load times.

The ROM is about as fast as the RAM ( I think ), but obviously, it isnt cleared when you turn the power off.

So, you just load up the ROM with stuff and act like its a really fast SMC. ( I dont know if it will be able to function the same though... )

 

[crazeeplaya]

ROm is slower than RAM, but much faster than reading from the SMC

 

[Gummy Bear]

I'm afraid at least some of you are mistaken.

Note that empee said he would be adding a "128mbit" flash memory, not 128mbyte.

Megabytes are approximately 8 times the value of Megabits, so the 128mbit chip that empee mentioned will only be 16mbytes in capacity.

Although this would accomodate an enormous BIOS or firmware, it simply wouldn't have the capacity that some of you are thinking.

Also, if it behaved like the original chip, you wouldn't be able to continually modify it's contents, so things like game saves or constant changes of programs would be impossible.

 

[divadsci]

would you be able to run linux (yes i know it doesn't work yet) straight from the bios using this, thus freeing up ram?

 

[damaki]

would you be able to run linux (yes i know it doesn't work yet) straight from the bios using this, thus freeing up ram?

It should theoritically be possible to put the Linux kernel into 8 MB of rom. And it would spare memory too, that's true. But changing the bios chip is more critical than changing RAM, as you must reprogram the chip before you put it in.
[edit]
With the RAM mod I think that if you don't reprogram the chip, there should be only 8MB detected, but no other issue. Am I wrong?
[/edit]

 

[empee]

But changing the bios chip is more critical than changing RAM, as you must reprogram the chip before you put it in.

Well that's where my JTAG cable comes in ..
i can reflash it after it's installed

And i'll probably do the mem upgrade while i'm at it..
if i can just find the right type of ram for it (salvaging some old computer ram's)

And yes it would be great for linux atleast with the 32mb ram mod .. pda's boot from flash mem and load stuff to ram too..

 

[Axeman]

Definitely interesting, if just to give more options of boot roms. Would be cool to have a program that compiles fxes into a single file which can then be flashed and appear as a boot menu or something, even without a smc...

 

[Steve-O]

so this means you can put most Emulators on the Flashchip (Eg Snes, GB, Atari Etc) and pick which Emulator you want to load (Or Load Filebrowser) in the Selector at boot up??? So the SMC Can be filled of 100% Game Roms and the Flashchip can be used to store the Emulators??

Sounds good but I wouldnt want to risk it hehe..

 

[washo]

if it is OK then perhaps mashmods will do the mod like the OC mod or the 32M upgrd...
Sounds interresting

see you :lol:

 

[EdCa22]

I dont think this will work Im afraid. First, the soldering wont be fun. I've done a fair amount of surface mount soldering, with jumper wires, but this looks pretty nasty. However, the soldering is possible. The real problem is that the first chip is arranged in 8 bit words, while the new one is 16 bit. I suppose that it may be feasible to tie the extra 8 bits to ground, but you'll lose memory storage (it will half) and I'm not even certain that will work. Ideally you want a chip that is directly compatible with the original, if possible pin-out identical, but not necessarily.

As for the usefulness, the most obvious use that alot of people may be interested in in is storing a gameboy ROM in the extra flash memory (although 256Mbit would be better) and then there would be enough RAM to properly emulate a gameboy advance with no problems.

Looking at the options provided by atmel;, there is a 32Mbit flash, the AT49SV322A that may be suitable, if smaller than what you planned, although it is not pin out compatible. Have fun,

Ed.