Open-Source Xbox Modchips

DonatusIgnis writes "Our Australian company has decided to release the PCB designs for all of our Xbox modchips back to the modchip community. We are starting with our modified version of the CheapMod, and the Protel PCB files are already available on our website. Once we are sure that this is the right way to go, we'll also release the design for our multi-bios modchip in the next few weeks. Considering how much every modchip manufacturer owes to the Xbox pioneers who blazed the trail before us, it would be great to see more companies giving their work back to the general modchip community under an open-style license." See the Aussiechip homepage for FAQs and details - interesting stuff.

Comments

Question:

[Sheetrock]

How does one go about actually figuring out how a console such as the Xbox authenticates things to begin with? The level of complexity of the hardware would seem to make a task like this, well, complex, and I've always been curious about where people start.

Re:Question:

[apirkle]

Have a look at the paper Keeping Secrets in Hardware: the Microsoft XBox Case Study by Andrew "bunnie" Huang, XBox hacker extraordinaire.

Also have a look at his xbox hacking page for lots of other goodies.

This isn't really an ''open'' license

[Tom7]

Though you can look at their schematics (if you have the same software as them), the license isn't really "open source" in the sense we've come to love. They place restrictions on how you can use the designs (not for anything that might cause injury) and how you can distribute them (can't build anything commercial). They can revoke the license at any time. So, for instance, you couldn't use these in a GPL project. Check out the license.

This is in fact a nice step, but not all licenses are created equal!