Electronics

Three Hundred Twenty Ninth Post: Electronics

I have been studying electronics lately. There are books and sites dedicated to reverse engineering the X-box. Quite an expensive way to learn, isn’t it? I guess it is much cheaper than a computer. And with new systems coming out, it is a bit dated. However prices should be lowering and it still is a great learning tool, especially if your game system would just be put into your next garage sale.

But what impresses me is how these guys solder and de-solder chips on the X-box’s motherboard. My experience with soldering is that the gun melts the solder instantly. Soldering on the circuit board would be challenging.

There are mod chips for all the system. One thing about the Playstation 2 is that it has standard USB drives. I still have to search the web to see if anyone still does anything with the Sega Dreamcast. There are tons of Roms for the Dreamcast and I believe it has Linux. I have read that the Dreamcast uses a common chip. It is the same chip the Gameboys use only with a 3D processor.

I’ve read in PC magazine that in Windows Vista games will directly communicate with the processor and graphics card. It increases efficiency 30% to 40%. I wonder how long it will take PC’s to catch up to the X-box 360. It is too soon to make correct predictions.

Well until I ramble on... May the Creative Force be with You