When Sony designed the unique PlayStation again within the ‘90s, they didn’t have any motive to make it any smaller than it was. As such, its motherboard was bigger than it completely needed to be. On prime of that, know-how has progressed rather a lot over the previous three many years, which let Thedrew create what is probably going the world’s smallest PlayStation motherboard.
This type of factor can be pretty trivial to attain with a contemporary SoC (system-on-chip) and emulation. It is also accomplished with an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) by somebody with the related experience. However Thedrew wished to make use of actual PlayStation chips, which is why this mission is so fascinating.
Thedrew salvaged the essential chips from a PSONE with the PM-41 motherboard model, which had the smallest chip packages of the PlayStation varieties. These chips embody the CPU, GPU, SPU, RAM, and BIOS. He then designed a brand new, compact motherboard to host these chips, changing all the auxiliary circuitry and parts, comparable to for supplying energy, with fashionable alternate options that take up much less house. Timing isn’t vital with the PlayStation {hardware}, so he didn’t want to fret about tuning hint size or something like that.
The result’s a motherboard lower than 1 / 4 of the scale of the unique. Extra boards present energy, controller connections, video output, and substitute the disc drive.
Why would Thedrew do all of this? Largely for enjoyable. Nevertheless it additionally opens up the potential for different initiatives, comparable to a handheld PlayStation.