Sorry if this is an old question, but I looked and didn't see an obvious answer right off. Does the tool T10000 come with the development software keyboard and such like the linux kit, or is it just the tool with it's own software? Is it any good without the development software, or is that loaded onto a separate pc? And is it possible to upgrade the pc side of the tool, as it apparently came with a pentium 233 (?) if it's just a pc, can't you just pop in a new motherboard on the pc side or is it more complicated than that? basically thinking about trying to pick up a tool but if it's too outdated/slow or useless without other hardware/software that can't easily be gotten or may not come with it is it really any better than just getting linux up and running?
The PS2 Linux kit you could use on old (fat) PS2s has absolutely nothing to do with the T10k. You may be able to run PS2 Linux on the TOOL (at least the beta kit should work, but I have never tried it), but that is not how its intended to be used. In embedded-systems speech, the TOOL is the target system. That is, it runs the software you ultimately plan to run on retail PS2 systems. In contrast to retails, the TOOL has some additional hardware (like four times the memory and a special communication interface) and software support, like the ability to access files from another PC using the virtual host: file system. To implement these additional tasks, Sony chose to connect PC-compatible hardware to a (highly customized) PS2 mainboard. This "PC-side" of the TOOL has the only task of handling communications with another (usually much faster) PC, usually called the "development PC". All your usual development activites (editing code, running the compiler, running the debugger and so on) are carried out on the development PC. The TOOLs I have seen so far all included parts of a very old PS2 SDK on their internal hard drives. They contain stuff like the debuggers, but no compilers, headers or libraries needed for PS2 software development. All of that is expected to be done on the dev PC, then sent over to the TOOL via Ethernet for execution and debugging. Early TOOLs came with either this or a comparably slow CPU. Later versions (T10000H, T15000) used a Celeron @533MHz. The TOOL does not use a standard ATX mainboard. It uses a backplane that houses the communication device for the PS2 as well as four PCI slots. One of those slots holds a single-board computer (SBC) card with CPU, RAM and I/O connections (IBM PS/2 keyboard and (later versions only) mouse, development Ethernet, IDE and floppy connectors). In theory you could upgrade the PC part by using a new SBC, but you would need something that can be operated with the ancient Linux system in use. A new Linux is currently out of the question, as the device driver used to communicate with the PS2 is only available in binary form for specific kernel versions. The TOOL does not compare to retail machines running Linux. It was used for professional development, as a tool (no pun intended) rather than a toy. So it really comes down to what you want to do with it. To make full use of the TOOL, you need to connect it to a development PC running Linux (any modern Linux version should work, though). If you cannot or do not want to use a stand-alone PC, you can also use a VM (which is the setup I am using: Linux VM on notebook, Ethernet bridged to real adapter, TOOL connected to same LAN switch). On the development PC, you need a cross compiler for the PS2, as well as a means to send code over. You could also burn your applications to CDRs (the TOOL reads "Master" CDs/DVDs), but I suggest not to do this, as the laser pickups are much harder to replace than for retail units. The homebrew PS2 SDK works with the TOOL with certain restrictions, but it does not include necessary DECI2 debuggers. You could use my own software Kermit for basic uploading and debugging, or you can just try to get your hands on the official PS2 SDK which is floating around the net.
thanks for the answer thanks for all the answers, that explains it better. i was wondering then if it's not just linux like the linux devkit and is a separate software, were can you get the installation software? because it seem apparently some of these may not come with the original software or could likely be oudated. if the development is done mainly on the pc, how are graphics or sound created? on the pc with another software or on the tool hardware? do they have software and manuals somewhere like developers used that could be obtained if I found a tool or is that usually an extra?
The TOOL itself runs a customized Linux distribution with some special packages installed. Updates may have been available at some time, but I have never seen any leaks. You can only hope that, when buying a TOOL, its hard drive is still in a useable state. Otherwise, you can always ask in the forum to get a dump from another member in case your installation is unusable. As for the development PC, any current Linux should do. Sony seems to prefer Red Hat, but as none of us can get official support anyway, that doesn't mean much. As I wrote, you will need a compiler with libraries and header files, as well as some means to transfer your applications to the TOOL. You can use the homebrew/open-source SDK available at ps2dev.org, but it doesn't support the TOOL, so you should prepare for some surprises (kernel incompatibilities). The TOOL is just the target system and does not include any software for content creation; that's handled on PCs. Even the official SDK does not include such tools; some converters only, but nothing for authoring. Artists generally have their preferred set of applications for such tasks anyway, and I read some time ago that special PS2 plugins existed for all of the major ones. The PS2 hardware is fairly well documented, with register-level specifications for the main components (EE and its devices, GS, SPU). Part of those documents (everything minus SPU) was included with the Linux kit for retail machines (5th edition), the latest 6th edition documents is not public, but still floating around. If you get a bare TOOL, it'll usually not come with any documentation or SDK. That was delivered separately.
isnt there also an SDK for windows XP and Visual Studio? from SN Systems? dose that also work with the tool, or only with special "test" hardware, like they show on their website?
There is a compiler for Windows available, as is Visual Studio integration; both should work with the TOOL. However, I don't know whether it is stand-alone or still needs some files from the official SDK.
As far as I'm aware, (from what I've seen of it) the SNSystems/Visual Studio/Visual Slick version is stand alone. It works I think in conjunction with ProDG, (only from what I've seen, not that I'm an expert programmer).
SN Systems got taken over by Sony, and afaik actually made the PS3 SDK, there is a PS3 SDK for windows, there is also an SN Systems PS2 SDK for windows, I think it requires files from the PS2 SDK like the GC SDK but I'm unsure, I know someone with it and could ask but if they'd know or not I don't know. Oh and also no, codewarrior and ProDG are completely seperate SDK packages by different companies, they're not compatible with each other (you can't just copy code written in one other to the other, same with the GC).
I haven't used either CodeWarrior or ProDG for PS2; however AFAIK: -CodeWarrior is only an IDE (maybe including its own compiler, but still requiring the SDK libraries to be able to compile something) -ProDG is a set of tools including compiler, debugger, etc, but no IDE (at least according to http://www.prodg.co.uk/playstation2/ProDG.asp
nope, it is made by different company - used to be metrowerks, own IDE + compiler + debugger and uses SDK from Sony i used to like it
