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More details about OzXodus v1.6 findings
>> From Artifex on OzXodus Forums:
[QUOTE]
As I'm sure you've all noticed by now, we have succeeded in modifying the v1.6 such that the Xenium is fully functional. Within just a few minutes of posting this video, several people came to me with the same questions, so we at OzXodus thought it would be a good idea to answer some of the inquiries as to the technical details by starting a thread in which to share our findings with you, our friends, customers, and even the competition.
To answer some of the common questions:
Q: How much modification was done to the board? Is it a difficult modification?
A: 5 jumpers were soldered on the underside of the board. I did these solders myself, and I am by no means an expert with an iron. The modification was not difficult, anyone who can manage a d0 will have no problem.
Q: Will a solderless be available?
A: That is yet to be determined.
What are the actual modifications?
Q: Previously it had been said that the LPC bus was no longer functional, and that the LADs were missing, yet the chip appears to be on the LPC bus. Is it, or isn't it?
A: The LAD lines are not routed to the LPC bus, but they still exist. In fact, the onboard firmware is no longer a parallel device, but an LPC slave device. In other words, Microsoft's firmware is now the same type of hardware used for contemporary modchips.
The modifications made to the board re-route the LAD lines to the debug header, for use by a chip.
Q: If both the mod and the onboard firmware are LPC slaves, doesn't that create bus contention?
A: YES! However, interestingly enough, Microsoft's onboard flash makes use of the LFrame, which has been brought back in this new revision! It is believed that microsoft previously removed the Lframe to thwart people wishing to modify their xbox for running linux, and similar "homebrew" projects. One of the OzXodus team members, in fact, was the first to discover the "missing LFrame" and the modding community was quick to react. Now, modchips such as the Xenium, no longer have any need for the LFrame. The common LPC Flash component chosen by microsoft for the v1.6 does, however, hence it being brought back.
We simply disable the LFrame signal, causing the onboard bios to cease functioning, and allowing the Xenium to take control.
You could say that Microsoft's own solution to modchips came back to bite them!
Q: I heard mention of differences in the power supply between this and previous revisions. Can you elaborate?
A: Previous revisions used a standby voltage of 3.3v, where this new revision uses a standby of 5v. Power supplies from earlier revisions will not work with the new revision.
Q: I heard mention of the smbus being "encrypted." Is it?
A: No. The new video encoder (Xcalibur) found in the v1.6 appears to use a rather complicated method of table lookups for initialization. Compared to the straightforward table lookups used for previous encoders, it is easy to see how, at an uneducated glance, it would appear that some form of cipher is occuring. This is not the case, it is simply complicated code.
Q: Are you tired?
A: You have no idea.
Q: Is that your hand?
A: Yes.
More to follow..... Keep an eye on http://www.OzXodus.com/ for the latest Xenium and Xbox v1.6 news!
[/QUOTE]
Thanks to ivc for mailing me this link.
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