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Upgrading the Memory on a DreamCast?
dknight asks: "Ok, a friend of mine recently has his computer die on him. Rather than go out and buy a computer, we thought we'd try converting his DreamCast to fit the bill. We've got the keyboard and mouse, and now have Linux running on it successfully(we're working on getting the network adapter). The problem we're running into, however, is that it's REALLY painfully slow. I'm figuring this is due to the meager 16 Megs of RAM it comes with. My question is: Is it possible to upgrade the RAM on a DreamCast? Has anyone else attempted this feat?" I highly doubt this is possible, but if this can be done, this might breathe new life into those unused DC consoles that are lying around.
I'm pretty sure that the DC linux can't swap (no read/write media). So if you haven't got a network connection, and it's not panicking as it runs out of memory, then memory isn't the problem. The SH4 in the DC is not that fast by PC standards.
"don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
OK, while I'm all for bizarre uses of neat hardware with geek-appeal, you may well be doing your friend a disservice by trying to move him from a PC to a Dreamcast. The first issue I see here is connectivity; you've gotta have it or you're better off just locking him in a closet somewhere with a flashight and a pad of paper.
Having watched the traffic on the dreamcast-linux mailling list devolve into people spouting noise about how someone should just auto-magically develop firmware and drivers for the WinModem and everyone begging for a BBA for less than $150, I have to say that things are lagging. Without a real option for stand-alone connectivity on the dreamcast, you're screwed. Play rogue all you want, but when your friend is done typing his papers in vi he's going to be SOL when he tries to get the info off the dreamcast.
As it stands, the going rate on BBA's is $120-150 (pre-shipping, pre-tax, pre-hey-we're-all-out-of-em) which could easily replace the dead PC that has got you into this mess.
Even if you find a hidden cache of BBAs at an affordable price, you still are going to have him dependant on NFS mounts and other machines for functionality with the Dreamcast.
My mucking about with dreamcast as a thin-client/mp3-player/SNES-emulator is just that... mucking about. I do not delude myself that I can make it a functioning day-to-day desktop system, and I suggest you re-evaluate your friend's needs with a more cynical eye. I wish you the best of luck in this, and would love to hear how you proceed with said endevour, but you may well find that $250 bucks later the PC is just the best option.
Keep us posted
"If I wanted your input on my pet project, I'd stick my hand up your ass and use you like a sock-puppet." - Muse
I love this analogy. Love it, love it, love it. Can I steal it? Is it an open source quote? :) GPL'ed even?
I can't wait to see the first person clam they made a production SQL server from their Dreamcast, PS2, or watch. From there its just a short step to "We replaced all our Ultra Enterprise 4500, 5500's with Dreamcasts in a Beowulf cluster to serve our Production financial database at [insert large financial corp here]."
The problem is that you're trying to use a DreamCast as a PC replacement, and it's not one. The fact that it boots NetBSD doesn't change this, my toaster boots NetBSD and it's not a PC either. Cheap PCs are readily available from many many vendors.
xmame is also a standard part of the DC Linux distro. You still have to add your own ROM's though.
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
Ok, just to clarify for all of you:
his PC is _DEAD_ not just one or two components, but basically all of them. The few parts that can be salvaged, quite honestly, arent worth it. We have everything we need as far as tools, parts, etc.. on hand, free. Nothing we do to this system is gonna cost us. That's part of the beauty of it, we're just at this for kicks, to see how much we can do to it. I mean, if we really wanted, we could probably upgrade the processor too, it wouldn't be reasonable to do it, but we probably could. We're on a college campus with an OC-3, and network drops in every room, so we've got net access, so we dont need to worry about the whole modem thing. I'm not asking you guys to understand why I want to do this, and I certainly dont expect you guys to think I'm sane for it, I just want to know what all has been done, what can be done, and what is within reason to attempt to do, if you guys know more than I, which I would assume most of you do. Thanks guys.
The original poster asked if it were possible to upgrade the RAM on a DreamCast... I have not attempted this, but am also curious about it.
Notice I avoided these comment paths:
1) DC != PC, even w/ lots of RAM
2) Proc is bottleneck, not RAM
Even if you feel that upping the RAM is pointless, do you have any info to share about it?
-- INSERT SIG HERE --
I've done some light hacking on the Dreamcast, and have my Linux box mountable as an NFS volume over a coder's cable (helps when programming for the DC :-)). I've been looking over material on the web for DC hacking for a few months, and I have yet to see anyone actually upgrading the memory of a DC. But why let that stop you?
The two sites I've found helpful for DC hardware info:
1. DCEmulation.com is a general-purpose DIY Dreamcast site. There's a variety of info available here.
2. Dreamcast Programming - Marcus Comstedt's excellent hardware reference for the DC.
If you get anywhere with this, please post your results to DCEmulation.com. I'd love to hear about it.
For anyone else interested in running in booting Linux on their DC, the DC Linux site is here.
Windows users will find a a "burn it and run it" Disk Juggler version of Dreamcast Linux here.
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
a BBA is going to set you back 150-200,
:) ]
actually, in the last few days, Dan Potter (developer of KOS) has figured out enough of the HIT-300 Ethernet Adaptor (different incompatible Sega ethernet - don't know why) to get dc-load running on it. Presumably that means that either of NetBSD or Linux will have that same support soon, if they don't already.
A HIT-300 is nearer $100 to buy, and seem a bit more available from people like LikSang.
[bleh - a month after I paid my $150 for a BBA
"don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
Is whether you can make a bong out of a Linux Box. Or is it can you run Linux on a bong? Help! I'm confused!! ;-P
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
The way I see it, your best bet at getting reasonable performance out of the DC is going to be using it as an Xterm connected to a real computer.
Other than that, this is -not- the way to get your friend a working computer cheaply and quickly. It'd be an interesting side project to work on after you get him a machine, but your time and resources would be much better spent elsewhere. Check the local forsale newsgroups (and forums on overclocker webzits... those guys are always upgrading and getting rid of good hardware) for cheap/free hardware.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
HAHAHA. Oh god. Thanks, I needed that. That's why I stick to joints. ;)
.. why not ship the guy your 5$ casio watch with calender ... surely a small enough kernel and a well-responded to "Ask Slashdot" will result in a number crunching powerhouse in no time flat, right? ;)
Actually, it's much like another quote I know that addresses the same issue:
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
I agree with you man
"Old man yells at systemd"
Who said anything about it panicing? Its slow, not dieing.
My point exactly. It can't swap (no HDD, R/O root and no network), so when it hits the end of memory it will panic. Therefore, if it isn't panicking, then it isn't a memory constraint that is making it's slow.
The reason adding memory makes a PC faster is that it reduces swapping, unless is it is actually faster RAM (CAS2 etc). This thing can't swap, so that line of reasoning is pointless.
"don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
Okay, I see your point. If the system had more memory though, then the file system would be less dependant on using the GD-ROM drive. Almost nothing can be cached, causing most of the data having to be read back into memory at some point. If he NFS mounts the filesystem and could add a bit more RAM, it would significantly speed things up. However, just mounting the filesystem by NFS, he is still going to run into the same problem.
Once you get ahold of your network adapter, just set up a remote swap file. Either that or configure the dreamcast memory cards to hold your swap memory. 16 MB is fine, but that's the )_only_ memory you have. Once you get ahold of the network adapter (good luck), things should be looking brighter.
Good luck to you! My dream cast died when I took it apart and put it together all fscked up. Hardware aint my forte.