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The parallel port is 16 bits wide and clocked at 25Mhz, do you have so many dreamcasts ?
On a cluster a software correctly written is distributed on the different nodes.
I know one software called pvm that helps in writing such programs :
http://www.csm.ornl.gov/pvm/pvm_home.html
There must be other ones
So that means the parallel can do about 50mb/s if I'm doing my math right. Still seems possible that it could be used in some sort of cluster.
Thanks for the help semicolo, and actually I only have 3 dreamcasts but I know where to pick them up for under 15$ and I'm the type of person who always has to have a project to do.
This may never turn into something useful but that's not why I'm making it. It's just for the coolness factor and to say it's been done and worked.
For coolness and possibly a large number of people wantiing one, why not design a BBA or LAN adapter that plugs into the parallel port to replace the modem that unfortunately too many of us have to deal with? :)
But some kind of IDE or USB host controller (with drivers for Flash, ext. HD/CD/DVD, Ethernet adapters) would be useful as well - these GDROM drives aren't going to last forever...
working on it Rufus (but slooooooooooooowly)
I've bought a CPLD and currently stduying the work of bitmaster and the realtek 8139 datasheet.
I'd like to be able to replace the gdrom drive by a standard cd drive, but I don't think we could do it from the parallel port, it'll be directly in place of the gdrom.
[quote author=semicolo link=board=hardware;num=1094765398;start=0#13 date=11/20/04 at 04:33:10]working on it Rufus (but slooooooooooooowly)
I've bought a CPLD and currently stduying the work of bitmaster and the realtek 8139 datasheet.[/quote]
Cool. A BBA-compatible drop-in replacement would obviously by far be the best solution.
[quote author=semicolo link=board=hardware;num=1094765398;start=0#13 date=11/20/04 at 04:33:10]I'd like to be able to replace the gdrom drive by a standard cd drive, but I don't think we could do it from the parallel port, it'll be directly in place of the gdrom.[/quote]Yeah, but do you think you could keep it top loading, using the guts of a common PC optical drive?
hum no chance to be able to fit some standard pc cdrom mechanical parts in place of the gdrom.
the gdrom is much more compact and, well, it's top loading !
That would be a pain in the @ss to remove the rails.
So does anyone have the schematic of a real bba adapter we can work from or are the chips so proprietary that you can't find anything like them right now? I would like to help work on a project to make a new bba as a replacement but I haven't been able to find anything to begin working with except the pinout for the parallel port and few other things. Or perhaps a parallel port adapter that uses the 12mbps usb connection?
[quote author=semicolo link=board=hardware;num=1094765398;start=15#15 date=11/21/04 at 05:18:06]hum no chance to be able to fit some standard pc cdrom mechanical parts in place of the gdrom.
the gdrom is much more compact and, well, it's top loading !
That would be a pain in the @ss to remove the rails.[/quote]Laser assembly too big? What about something from a laptop drive?
Well yes a cdrom from a portable could do the job (didn't thought of it :-D)
Chaotis, all I know from the BBA is it contains a realtek 8139 ethernet chip. From the datasheet it seems there's no other way to connect this chip but pci (or cardbus which is some sort of pci).
So there must be some G2-to-Pci chip in the BBA. I'll ask someone to list the chips, if someone here's got a BBA and wants to do some reverse engineering, you're welcome !
I personnaly don't own a BBA.
[quote author=semicolo link=board=hardware;num=1094765398;start=15#18 date=11/22/04 at 00:25:00]Well yes a cdrom from a portable could do the job (didn't thought of it :-D)
Chaotis, all I know from the BBA is it contains a realtek 8139 ethernet chip. From the datasheet it seems there's no other way to connect this chip but pci (or cardbus which is some sort of pci).
So there must be some G2-to-Pci chip in the BBA. I'll ask someone to list the chips, if someone here's got a BBA and wants to do some reverse engineering, you're welcome !
I personnaly don't own a BBA.[/quote]
BBAs use custom glue chips to work with the chip.