Looking for more info on creating an Alpha XDK

i couldnt remember who uploaded thanks! oh btw i have them here if needed ill put on mega

 

Unable to boot games, they crash when trying to load audio device. So now I'm trying to find an AMR sound device with the wolfson WM9707 chip. So far I've found nothing.

 

You are making good progress, I am gutted I dont have the money spare to join the cause.

I will look for the sound card though.

 

The Wolfson chip appears to just be a codec, I'm wondering if I need a certain chipset on the sound card also. I've not been able to find any real good pictures from the alpha audio card yet

 

Nope, CJ and I (yeah, guess who) got it up and running with off the shelf parts, and I still remember about 90% of how we did it. I figure I should probably share the knowledge before I completely forget.

I'm not sure exactly where you guys are at with this, but I can help you get it running.

CJ's demonstration video actually gives away all the secrets. If you guys don't have access to it, i can repost.

Somewhere i have a scan of the audio card, but the actual unit is in storage. It was a custom designed card, i don't think you're going to be able to 'off-the-shelf' it.

As for the case, I contacted the manufacturer back in 2006 and tried to buy out any remaining stock; they said they didn't have any. It was an off the shelf case, with a custom jewel. I don't remember who the company was.

 

Everything works with mine, but if it tries to access any audio it crashes. I've tried a few random PCI cards with the same chip but have had no luck.

I've not put any time or money into this for awhile now.

 

I know CJ had to patch something in the kernel to bypass a security check. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I thought it had to do with the GPU's string check. He didn't have any crashes on audio, and I'm sure he hadn't sourced a replacement audio card.

 

There is a check to see which model of GPU you're running, I didn't have to patch that, as my card was the correct model. I can boot dash fine, it crashes when loading audio device when loading alpha games. I'm not sure he got any further than where I'm at.

Definitely no obvious security checks though

 

I seem to have found the similar bit in the 3146 recovery kernel -
this iteration of the kernel not only checks the device id, but the vendor id as well, making sure that you're using an nvidia card - I believe it may be possible to run this kernel on non-nvidia hardware.

I've commented the functions with useful info. I'm not sure exactly now how to bypass this bit in the kernel, though-

 

You can easily do on the fly patching with the kernel debugger. I can't remember the commands to do so off hand, I can check when I'm home if you're interested. The recovery 3521.1 seemed to work better with my hardware, requiring no patching.

 

I might think ill order some IC for a custom card. Only hope they will arrive (Patching is a easier way, I really should start testing again when im back in EU)

 

not sure if this has been mentioned but a datasheet for the audio chip used has a schematic/pcb layout (low quality)

i mirrored the file on my server http://betaftp.co.uk:280/Datasheets/WM9707.pdf

 

I'm going to try patching the kernel/games this weekend to see if I can stop the crashes on audio. I'm still trying to find an AMR but for whatever reason I cannot find one. I'm guessing these were proprietary? Probably cheap as hell to make for them. I'm wondering if anywhere would build one for us based on that datasheet?

 

I just recieved the AMR ic, hope I can get some time/courage to build a test board. (and hope that chinese sold me a working ic )
Also need to build that Alpha.

 

I'm continuing to try and find the differences between the different builds of alpha kit kernels. The later kernels do seem to load a copy of the xbox bios into memory on boot, whereas 3146 is seemingly just a kernel loader. There does not appear to be any D3D calls in 3146, but the next recovery, 3521, has 3d acceleration added in. There's a lot of changes between the two builds, both in the kernel, and functionality of the software.
My thread is here: www.assemblergames.com/forums/showt...eering-and-Virtualization&p=703350#post703350

 

I cant seem to find the AMR specifications. Intel had a nice PDf on their FTP, but its gone. Have no idea if it will help me.
2 clear shots of the front and back of the Sound card will help me.
The pdf: AMR101.pdf , should be location but no more: ftp://download.intel.com/pc-supp/platform/ac97/amr101.pdf

Else ill have to reverse-engineer the AMR bus myself.

 

http://www.ms-infobytes.info/pages/AudioModemRiser.pdf

 

Thank you Espes, I love those dimensions they tell me. on to PCB design (have to build my Alpha still too)

EDIT, found the WM9707 Reverence design and pcb looks 99.9% identical to that of Bormans Macroshot SOundcard:
http://web.archive.org/web/20040517010459/http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/uploads/documents/WM9707AMR.pdf

EDIT2: Thank you Bad_Ad84 for hinting I needed to search for Reference designs
this also : "bad_ad84 told me there is one to download, so I did"

 

I know im bumbing an old thread but I just realy want to say that I got my "Franken Alpha" working with parts ordered from Ebay.
Intel Mobo,
CPU 733 Mhz
Nvidia card
128mb ram + teminator thing
Network card
Hdd (master), DVD(burner, slave) on Primairy
Floppy drive (is it needed? need to test)
No AMR sound yet
No USB yet
Boots May 2001 Recovery and video at VGA

Ordered an USB card from the UK, and will order a AMR sound card pcb from china somewhere this week

 

It boots!? Great progress Code Going to show a video of your progress so far?