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[appleguru]

QUOTE(telo{+} @ Jan 28 2007, 05:05 PM)

The PIC's protection is not resettable without clearing the NOPROTECT flag. The only way to do that is a full erase of the chip. I use this protection all the time and to the best of my knowledge it is uncrackable without clearing the rom, or frying the chip. Either way, you are not going to read this thing, but hell, if you do manage to break Microchip's protection you'd be a millionaire (and not by selling wii-chips)

Wrong; have a look at the link error404 posted ( http://www.rampantap...uk/12c508a.html ), as well as bunnie's (yes, that bunnie) page here:

http://www.bunniestu...ess/?page_id=40

While I do NOT condone anyone actually cloning this device should it prove real (The chip devs put a lot of work into their devices; cloning a chip is really just stealing someone else's work), setting the NOPROTECT flag is certainly not as bulletproof as you may think (Though the method for clearing this flag, as outlined in the links here, is hardly easy).

Needless to say, given that this is described as being very similar to the GC drive hacks already out (Namely, the Xeno GC and the DuoQ (Although the DuoQ appears to be a poorly cloned Xeno GC)), I can't imagine a new, cheaper, NOT CLONED, and likely easier to install/better device is not too far off at all.

[twistedsymphony]

QUOTE(telo{+} @ Jan 28 2007, 05:05 PM)

LOL @ twistedsymphony and yaazz

What Error404 is saying to you is:

The PIC's protection is not resettable without clearing the NOPROTECT flag. The only way to do that is a full erase of the chip. I use this protection all the time and to the best of my knowledge it is uncrackable without clearing the rom, or frying the chip. Either way, you are not going to read this thing, but hell, if you do manage to break Microchip's protection you'd be a millionaire (and not by selling wii-chips)

You can read the hashes (sum of all the bytes) on each block.... but it would take years to get the real code out of it. This is required for verifying the contents after writing.

It would be MUCH easier to get an oscilloscope and just see what its doing. That would take me a couple days, but I'm certain someone else will do it, its a no brainer IF this thing works.

I'm well aware of the NOPROTECT flag, though you'd be surprised how often people neglect to use it. PS1 modchips were nothing more then a PIC chips and many didn't have any kind of protection at all, allowing for countless knockoffs and the price being driven into the ground (around $8 a chip once the dust settled).

Not to mention getting the code isn't all that difficult when you're goal is an exact duplicate of the chip as opposed to actually decompiling the code.

Though you're right that it would probably be just as easy to throw on an o-scope and see what it's doing
Either way I see some Chinese cheap mods coming right quick if this chip is legit.

... reverse engineering FTW