DC cluster?

[Alexvrb]

I've got glue and I've got chips. All we need is some duct tape and we're in business. :P

[quzar]

[quote author=Alexvrb link=board=hardware;num=1094765398;start=15#20 date=11/22/04 at 23:03:55]I've got glue and I've got chips. All we need is some duct tape and we're in business. *:P[/quote]

rofl. mmmm glue chips.

[semicolo]

Darn, anyone's got a BBA and a logic analyzer ?

[Chaotis]

Yay for duct tape, you can do anything with that stuff. (and some super glue)

If anyone has anything that could help us it would be very much appreciated.

Is there any adapter you can buy that fits the dc parallel port, currently I have my one off the old modem. Just wondering because it would make it kind of hard to build something and then have someone like lik-sang mass produce them otherwise. :-/

Has anyone tried to use one of those 16bit parallel to usb ics to connect to the parallel port? It seems kinda straight forward but if nobody has done it yet I'm guessing there is something I'm not seeing. (I'm a programmer, not a hardware person) Like: http://www.smsc.com/main/catalog/usb3250.html

Kinda backwards how I have to get a coders cable to program the drivers for another connector in order to make and use it... O_<

[semicolo]

See my tutorial for desoldering the connector Chaotis : http://semicolo.free.fr/Dreamcast/tutorial.html ;-)

The software side for usb is a bit more complicated than other i/o ports, but hey it certainly could be done, i'll check the datasheets (first problem is the clock speed, can probably be worked around).

[Chaotis]

Yeah, the clock speed on the chip is 30mhz using all 16 pins and that's faster than the dc parallel port. So I'd assume you could send empty data or however you say there is no data to be sent. (I know how to do this on the low speed usb connections but the higher ones must be different)

I already have my connector off, that's pretty much what I did anyways. ^^; Except I didn't use a soldering iron and just worked it off a pin at a time, worst it could do is pull a pin out which I just stuck back into the connector.

I looked at dreamcast programming papers and haven't been able to find anything that works with the parallel port. Does KOS or the related libraries have support of it or is it just an extension of the maple bus?

Is there any other connection inside the dreamcast that could be used to communicate without outside data? Kinda hard to explain what I mean but I'm looking for another way to send data to/from the dreamcast much faster than the external ports allow.

Yes, I have infinite questions. Thanks all who helps.

[semicolo]

I think there's some ide code in kos (not sure). I know there is freebsd drivers for dc-ide-through-g2.
Anyway basic access to the parallel port is just reading/writing to the correct address.

I don't understand what you mean by "without outside data"
The g2 bus is the fastest bus after the main memory bus, the sound chip is connected on it (thanks Dan Potter for the info).

[Alexvrb]

You're always going to need "outside data" to get started, even if its just a disc that boots the DC and loads the necessary software. After that you can do whatever you want. It'd be so much easier to just leave a disc in the Dreamcast and send everything over either a serial connection or to the expansion bus. Axlen's cable shows great promise and would be plenty fast for most things.

[Chaotis]

Well so far the only way to communicate with outside data is the serial, parallel, controller ports and gdrom. I was wondering if there was any way (highly unlikely) to add something to say the onboard memory and map it. Even though it would actually be sending the data somewhere else instead of it being on ram.

In order to make a cluster effective it has to be able to send data as fast as it would be able to communicate with the harddrive. Or else it would be a lost cause. 50mbps and about another 1.25mbps using the other ports isn't too bad. If we can get it to actually keep up that speed.

Also, upgrading the memory would be very useful if you know of anyone who has already worked in this area.

EDIT: "without outside data" was supposed to be "with outside data"

[semicolo]

The parallele port of the dc is really just a connection on a system bus, thus by connecting address decoders on it, one can communicate by just writing to some defined memory address.
About memory upgrade, I think I've seen work to raise it upto 32Mb by adding the adequate chips and logic, but the hack was really ugly.