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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 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?"