On Tue, 17 Jul 2001, Christopher John Thomas wrote:

> 
> On Tue, 17 Jul 2001, nathan widmyer wrote:
> 
> > To be honest, I never knew the Dreamcast had a serial port.  Since you say
> > it has USB-like characteristics, would the Sega glue only stand in the way
> > of developing homemade devices like the extension port?
> 
>   It's only USB-like in that it has the same bandwidth as USB. I'm told
> that the protocol is exactly the same as any other serial port (completely
> unlike USB).

Okay, that makes sense.

>   I'm having trouble understanding the question re. sega glue. Using
> sega's glue chip would probably be best for anything on the extension
> (BBA) port, because it gives you a PCI bridge for free. For the serial
> port, you're probably best off burning an FPGA or using a microcontroller
> to deal with the signals and interface to whatever you're putting on the
> other end.
> 
>   YMMV.

I don't know how to do that right now, but that's why I'm a Computer
Engineering major.

> 
> > On another question entirely, does anyone know a website that has pictures
> > of someone that dismantled a Dreamcast and put it back together?  I'd like
> > to see the inside without voiding my warranty (if it's still valid).
> 
>   No idea. Ask the list :).
>   At less than $100 US, I wouldn't sweat voiding the warranty (just get a
> spare Dreamcast as a backup).
> 

You're right.  Also, something else you could do with a Dreamcast, arrange
them in a cluster, like 3 or 4 of them could overpower a PS2, but it would
be next to impossible to provide comparable benchmarks.  If you couldn't
cluster them, it's a fun thing to think about.

> 
> Ttyl,
> 				-Christopher Thomas
>