Qoob Chip

[Papy.G]

Ah, good news, check if the chip can actually adress much more memory, then, you may be able to beef it up.
Still, as some advanced modders/coders on this platform suggested, as there can be protected code, closed source or so around some older chip devices, it may be effortless and of a better profit for all the community to go forward with newer ones.

I know it can be a bit frustrating to have an "obsolete" device, and believe me, I'm quite experienced in this, owning a DS Neo-MKIII and a GBA SuperCard SD and getting stuck with no updates to beta firmwares and never achieve the expected performance, despite the money they orignally cost me.

Tested with viper 39VF020 to replace 39VF010 not working

Not very surprisingly, indeed.

[Undead Sega]

What part of this chip is the flash memory?

[webhdx]

The part labelled AM29LB160DB.

[Undead Sega]

And is that chip where the Qoob bios is contained?

[Papy.G]

What part of this chip is the flash memory?

It is quite obvious, you have three big chips on this board, a µC in the MCS-51 family, an Asic, and a Flash memory.

And is that chip where the Qoob bios is contained?

That depends on what you mean by Qoob bios. The way the "chip" behaves is dictated by the code contained in the 89C51 rom (it is internal flash, as suggested by the 9, 80C51 would be a OTP one, for example) combined with the ASIC configuration and board topology. If you want to know where the payload (the code injected in the gamecube to "fool" it, it is probably somewhere in this 29xx chip.
Still, I don't know what is the available space for the IPL boot thing on it, but among 16Mb (2MB), there should remain enough.

Swapping such a chip may be quite a hassle and overkill compared to writing a file to an SD.
It can be done, sure, but you can fry the whole thing as well, it's you to decide if it's worth it.

[Undead Sega]

What part of this chip is the flash memory?

It is quite obvious, you have three big chips on this board, a µC in the MCS-51 family, an Asic, and a Flash memory.

And is that chip where the Qoob bios is contained?

That depends on what you mean by Qoob bios. The way the "chip" behaves is dictated by the code contained in the 89C51 rom (it is internal flash, as suggested by the 9, 80C51 would be a OTP one, for example) combined with the ASIC configuration and board topology. If you want to know where the payload (the code injected in the gamecube to "fool" it, it is probably somewhere in this 29xx chip.
Still, I don't know what is the available space for the IPL boot thing on it, but among 16Mb (2MB), there should remain enough.

Swapping such a chip may be quite a hassle and overkill compared to writing a file to an SD.
It can be done, sure, but you can fry the whole thing as well, it's you to decide if it's worth it.

Please do forgive me, I am not entirely familiar with chips

What I meant by Qoob bios is the actual Qoob file(s). And if you say these are in the AM29LB160DB, then what is the purpose of the ASIC and 89C51 chips (and what code is in this)?

While you suggest swapping the chip as a feasibility, can't the board be "cloned" or redesigned from scratch to accommodate SWISS?
Besides, why does it have to be a Qoob mod chip, can't SWISS be but on any chip perhaps?

[emu_kidid]

While you suggest swapping the chip as a feasibility, can't the board be "cloned" or redesigned from scratch to accommodate SWISS?
Besides, why does it have to be a Qoob mod chip, can't SWISS be but on any chip perhaps?

You need to stop, this seems to be far beyond your understanding.

Swiss can be put on anything similar to Qoob if given enough space. HyperBoot is an example of such a device that's available these days, check more info here.

[Undead Sega]

While you suggest swapping the chip as a feasibility, can't the board be "cloned" or redesigned from scratch to accommodate SWISS?
Besides, why does it have to be a Qoob mod chip, can't SWISS be but on any chip perhaps?

You need to stop, this seems to be far beyond your understanding.

Swiss can be put on anything similar to Qoob if given enough space. HyperBoot is an example of such a device that's available these days, check more info here.

Okay yes, maybe I do, but I was just simply trying to understand everything as well

Also if that's the case, this kinda goes back to my prevous post a month ago, as you say if this can be anything similar to Qoob if given enough space, then a homemade XenoGC a possibility perhaps?
https://www.gc-forever.com/wiki/index.p ... noGC_Clone

[Papy.G]

The 8051 is a very versatile µC, quite impressive for its time (second generation of intel's "single-chip Microcomputer", back at the beginning of the 80's), and to begin, it can run programs off its internal memory, off an external one, or from both, if you don't know how it is done on the design you want to modify or clone, you're lost. And it's just one of the three chips that can support many configuration schemes.
I don't know about asics, but this one probably deals with the way the Flash chip is accessed by the 8051, since it can't directly adress more than 64kB of data and 64kB of code on its external memory bus (except if expanded 16bit commands are used), it may also host a letterbox system and some other buffers and bus logic.
The Xeno GC is based on an AVR µC, I don't know that familly, but it seems it can't adress external memory other than SPI based, because of the 28pin package, and that limits its speed if not the memory size.

With such a low background on the subject, wanting to do what you suggest is way high, you have better use your Qoob as it is or wait for Hyperboot PNP, you'll loose less time and money re-thinking things that other people more advanced have already done.

I have begun such a project, beginning from nothing and wanting to turn a phoneline terminal into a computer (8051 based ) after a short study that lead me to the conclusion not only it was feasible, but it was indeed anticipated from the MB design step!
I had to dig out the 8051 and VDP documentations, reverse-engineer the motherboard of various models, but now I'm stuck at the Rom study, because the learning curve is so hard, and it is very time consuming!

That depends on what you mean by Qoob bios. The way the "chip" behaves is dictated by the code contained in the 89C51 rom (it is internal flash, as suggested by the 9, 80C51 would be a OTP one, for example) combined with the ASIC configuration and board topology. If you want to know where the payload (the code injected in the gamecube to "fool" it, it is probably somewhere in this 29xx chip.

What I meant by Qoob bios is the actual Qoob file(s). And if you say these are in the AM29LB160DB, then what is the purpose of the ASIC and 89C51 chips (and what code is in this)?

Application Specific Integrated Circuit is quite self-explanatory, the rest of the answer was already in my previous answer.

[codetvirus]

The disc image there is one that boots itself and updates the bios, not a boot forwarder.

If you can run backup discs and don't want to setup a GameExploit, there's a Disc image in the GBI extras that forwards to SD Gecko/SD2SP2.

Hi, ill boot this image and enter the corresponding .elf bott when boot it says need to be in flash mode. How can i enable this? Thanks.

[Papy.G]

You have to refer to your chip documentation to know how to set it to flash mode, maybe there is a menu or a jumper on the board?

[Undead Sega]

The 8051 is a very versatile µC, quite impressive for its time (second generation of intel's "single-chip Microcomputer", back at the beginning of the 80's), and to begin, it can run programs off its internal memory, off an external one, or from both, if you don't know how it is done on the design you want to modify or clone, you're lost. And it's just one of the three chips that can support many configuration schemes.
I don't know about asics, but this one probably deals with the way the Flash chip is accessed by the 8051, since it can't directly adress more than 64kB of data and 64kB of code on its external memory bus (except if expanded 16bit commands are used), it may also host a letterbox system and some other buffers and bus logic.
The Xeno GC is based on an AVR µC, I don't know that familly, but it seems it can't adress external memory other than SPI based, because of the 28pin package, and that limits its speed if not the memory size.

With such a low background on the subject, wanting to do what you suggest is way high, you have better use your Qoob as it is or wait for Hyperboot PNP, you'll loose less time and money re-thinking things that other people more advanced have already done.

I have begun such a project, beginning from nothing and wanting to turn a phoneline terminal into a computer (8051 based ) after a short study that lead me to the conclusion not only it was feasible, but it was indeed anticipated from the MB design step!
I had to dig out the 8051 and VDP documentations, reverse-engineer the motherboard of various models, but now I'm stuck at the Rom study, because the learning curve is so hard, and it is very time consuming!

That depends on what you mean by Qoob bios. The way the "chip" behaves is dictated by the code contained in the 89C51 rom (it is internal flash, as suggested by the 9, 80C51 would be a OTP one, for example) combined with the ASIC configuration and board topology. If you want to know where the payload (the code injected in the gamecube to "fool" it, it is probably somewhere in this 29xx chip.

What I meant by Qoob bios is the actual Qoob file(s). And if you say these are in the AM29LB160DB, then what is the purpose of the ASIC and 89C51 chips (and what code is in this)?

Application Specific Integrated Circuit is quite self-explanatory, the rest of the answer was already in my previous answer.

Greatest apologies for my very late reply, things were happening at home and of course now what's going on in the world

I really very much appreciate that detailed post, it was very informative indeed (some of which is beyond my depth of understanding, hahaha).

Thus, are you trying to say that something like the XenoGC chip is that specific or fussy that it won't recognise or accept another flash memory chip with larger space? i.e. to put SwissGC in its place?

[Papy.G]

I said that it may be slow, if even it is feasible, to add external Flash to a Xeno GC, and if we manage to add SPI memory, it would be worth to go the extra mile to get SD support as well.
For this kind of application, you have better start with high-speed 8051 core µC who will be able to handle the SPI or Parallel memory with decent data rates. That may be why the Qoob has such a core-based µC on board.

[Undead Sega]

I said that it may be slow, if even it is feasible, to add external Flash to a Xeno GC, and if we manage to add SPI memory, it would be worth to go the extra mile to get SD support as well.
For this kind of application, you have better start with high-speed 8051 core µC who will be able to handle the SPI or Parallel memory with decent data rates. That may be why the Qoob has such a core-based µC on board.

Well, here in the UK we are currently in lockdown, so there's quite a lot of time on our hands!

May I ask, why would it be slow? Is it to do with the IC, hence why you suggest a high speed 8051 IC?

For the Qoob, if the board was cloned and the ASIC be replaced with a general IC so there's no encryption and decryption taking place, would this suffice perhaps?

[toxic9]

Hi people,

I've been away from the scene for a while.
Have anyone managed to successfully compile iplboot with SP2 support ??
It's size must be 128Kb to fit Qoob SX.

[Papy.G]

May I ask, why would it be slow? Is it to do with the IC, hence why you suggest a high speed 8051 IC?

You need a µC that has enough IO ports, and can handle SPI communications in a sort of background thanks to an integrated peripheral, (mainly clock generator, serial and buffers, kinda USART), and feed the drive stream at the same time, and maintain the whole datastream consistent from top to bottom.

Have anyone managed to successfully compile iplboot with SP2 support ??
It's size must be 128Kb to fit Qoob SX.

We currently have a viper IPL modded version, that, compressed, is only 10 blocks, and has been tested as a .gci on a memcard, booting off a savexploit.
PM Ledu205, he'd be glad to have someone willing to test it on a chip.

[Undead Sega]

May I ask, why would it be slow? Is it to do with the IC, hence why you suggest a high speed 8051 IC?

You need a µC that has enough IO ports, and can handle SPI communications in a sort of background thanks to an integrated peripheral, (mainly clock generator, serial and buffers, kinda USART), and feed the drive stream at the same time, and maintain the whole datastream consistent from top to bottom.

Ahhh right I see. I suppose this is why the Qoob is more of a better choice, because it is equipped with those requirements, right?

[Undead Sega]

Also, I just did this earlier today. I took the opportunity of some free space downstairs at home to disassemble my Gamecube and remove the Qoob Pro.

I decided to make a high quality scan of the mod chip and its USB counterpart.

Look forward to your thoughts and hope to hear back from previous posts too

[Khalimerot]

Hi,

I have replug my gamecube a few days ago, and it has a Qoob Pro inside.

I'd like to play with, but i can't flash it anymore (64bit system), i tried to install a virtual box Win 7 VM in 32 bit, but VirtualBox always fail to connect the qoob to the VM and i don't know why.

Do you have another solution to flash the chip nowadays?

Thank you!

Edit: Nevermind i'm stupid..there was not enough power for the chip on the front USB, it works now from my powered usb hub.

[Stingray_77]

I just Installed a new Qoob Pro Chip in my Gamecube yesterday! had in a drawer for more than 12 years. Got it to work in 1 time! yay for me!

Anyone got a lead on an IPLBoot version with SD2SP2 support to flash into my Qoob Pro?

Thanks!

[emu_kidid]

Just put full Swiss or something that can load subsequent DOL files onto your Qoob Pro flash memory and boot the console holding Y to go straight to the flash menu and then choose it. Once loaded, you can then load newer versions of Swiss or even have it autoload if you name it boot.dol and place it on a suitable device root.

[renanbianchi]

Just put full Swiss or something that can load subsequent DOL files onto your Qoob Pro flash memory and boot the console holding Y to go straight to the flash menu and then choose it. Once loaded, you can then load newer versions of Swiss or even have it autoload if you name it boot.dol and place it on a suitable device root.

Hey, is it possible we get write access to the Qoob Flash through Swiss? I've been flashing mine, but i don't have the usb board, so i'm soldering a usb cable every time i need to flash it, and it's kinda killing me lol.

[emu_kidid]

yeah it's possible, if you could create an issue/feature request on the github issue tracker I can probably work on it

[renanbianchi]

yeah it's possible, if you could create an issue/feature request on the github issue tracker I can probably work on it

Thanks! I just did that and i'll open another one about GCM Ripping.

[Undead Sega]

yeah it's possible, if you could create an issue/feature request on the github issue tracker I can probably work on it

Thanks! I just did that and i'll open another one about GCM Ripping.

Heey renanbianchi!

Good to see you back here again