DSP1 to DSP4 upgrade possible?

Includes but not limited to: SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, PlayStation 1, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Game Gear and I guess the Virtual Boy.

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Troglodyte
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Oct 14, 2009 11:39 pm

DSP1 to DSP4 upgrade possible?

Post by Troglodyte »

Hello,
I have extra Mario Kart and Top Gear 3000 cartridges
that don't have a label. I was wondering what everyone
thinks would happen if I tried to desolder the ROM chip off
the Mario Kart cartridge and desolder the ROM chip off the
Top Gear 3000 cartridge and then solder the Mario Kart ROM
chip onto the Top Gear 3000 cartridge.

As most of you probably know, Mario Kart uses the earlier DSP1
chip, and Top Gear 3000 uses the DSP4 chip. I was wondering what
everyone thought would happen if I swapped the two chips (either way).

Maybe it would runner faster in the case of Mario Kart with the DSP4 chip,
that is assuming that the chips are in fact backwards compatible.

Perhaps I will just have to try it myself.

UPDATE: I have successfully removed both the DSP1 chip from Mario Kart, and the DSP4 chip from Top Gear 3000. Unfortunately, in the process I cracked one of the pink resistors that was close to the DSP1 chip on the Mario Kart PCB. This shouldn't be a problem if I just replace it with the same type. The next step is to find compatible sockets for these chips and to solder the sockets onto the boards.
Troglodyte
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Oct 14, 2009 11:39 pm

Re: DSP1 to DSP4 upgrade possible?

Post by Troglodyte »

Can some one help me identify the value of the resistor below?
It has a 5 color band, and I am having trouble seeing which colors
are present (I have trouble telling dark colors apart like purple, dark blue, and
black for some reason).

Anyway, I have attached the picture. Both resistors are of the same value
in the picture, so I would like to know their value, as I need to replace the
one that I accidentally cracked.

I believe the colors are Brown, Purple, Red, Gray and Gold.
But I am not certain.

Thank you

UPDATE It's actually a capacitor... denoted by C4.
I had never really seen a ceramic capacitor with color bands before, and only have experience with the "fatter" more common blue ones used in Power Supplies and PC motherboards. Now I just have to identify it...

Image
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