Chipworks reverse engineer the PS4’s CPU, GPU, RAM, and other modules
It is no news that the first steps in hacking a device often include hardware reverse engineering. For those who don’t know Chipworks, it’s a company that specializes in reverse engineering semiconductors and electronic systems. Once in a while, mostly as a publicity stunt, they publish their work for popular electronics. Today, the PS4 gets the Chipworks treatment.
I mentioned hacking here because it’s a hobbyist’s wet dream to have access to the type of hardware Chipworks use, but it is worth mentioning Chipworks’ main business is patent infringement analysis: they reverse-engineer some company’s system on behalf of another company, to see if company B stole some hardware designs from company A without paying the associated license.
Chipworks are not in the business to help you break DRM or anything illegal, although their findings can potentially reveal interesting facts about the way Sony’s products do encryption or security. If you’re interested and have $11’000 lying around, you can even buy their report of the Vita CPU and see if it has something interesting for hobbyist hackers 😛
More seriously, the stuff Chipworks reveal on the PS4 won’t help anyone hack the device directly, although it gives interesting new information on the type of technology used: the shots confirm for example that the CPU is based on AMD’s Jaguar/Kabini architecture, or that the DRAM is made of 16 die of 512MB each.
They also dig into the Network co-processor (the chip that allows the PS4 to download content while in “standby” mode), the Wifi module, or even an unidentified SCEI module simply marked as “1327KM449”, among other devices of interest on the PS4 Motherboard.
But more importantly, it’s an occasion to see cool pictures of a sexy CPU 🙂
By the way, if you don’t have the $11’000 necessary to buy their Vita report, but happen to have a Vita, concentrated sulfuric acid, and no sense of safety whatsoever, you can also follow this instructive guide on how to open microchips and take cool die pictures like the ones above. The guide is real, and if you’re careful you can follow it. Just don’t expect to reveal anything groundbreaking on the vita about it, and don’t come and yell at me afterwards: apparently putting your Vita’s CPU in a sulfuric acid bath will void your warranty.
More pictures and details in the source below.
pfft just 11 Grand? I’m on it!
i think i’ll buy two
yea, 11k is pocket change,
I’m not even interested in something that cheap
I’m gonna hold off for the Vita-Ps4 report bundle.
Or you could just have access to a $90,000 multilevel x-ray machine at work. If I wasn’t afraid of nuking anything (batteries and x-rays eek) I’d definitely help on that scale of hacking the vita. Or a spare m-board kicking around. If you can see my e-mail feel free to message me xD. Just have to see if it can export to file.
I have been thinking the same thing…
There are Micro-XRF systems which can create the elemental mapping of the samples. It will be very close to the real picture with several colors (each unique color indicates to a unique element.)
Lol imagine trying to get a Vita replaced under warranty telling them you dropped it sulfuric acid, by accident.
Very interesting company, if I had the cash I would definitely purchase that report and donate it to somebody in the community. Would that be useful to have?
If you like cool looking pictures. other than that probably not.
well, if we know which one is used, we may be able to create a modship
A sammich?
I think you won’t be interested in hacking a console If you can able to spend 11K 🙂
That’s not true, I would still enjoy the convenience of all my favorite games on one device, or all 😉 And I enjoy the process, so yes if I were rich enough I’d still be here 🙂
BTW Wololo, did you notice that the ps4 and the xbox one use the same cores from “AMD/ATI” (Jaguar) so graphics wise they would talk the same language (microcodes) and it will be much easier to port from xbone to ps4 and vice versa.
I think you mean processor-wise, graphics-wise they are different.
Technically speaking, no. The only real difference is the amount of compute units. Other than that, and the difference in RAM( which is minimal, since GDDR5 is based off of DDR3), they’re both based on the same AMD GCN architecture, so there would be little to no porting between the two.
Chipworks! Y U No give PS4 to meeeeeee!
I can’t believe they did that!
Make a movie out of the process and watch grown men weep!
if the repport can help you why dont ask donnation for tying 50 cent or 1 $ each is cheap no
11k? Puh-leese, that’s pocket change! xd
right ..think it Microsoft that put out the cash…the xbox one board look prety cool
so its jus dual core …. 2x 20 16 x512mb 1x 10 8x512mb 1 409.6…(8xm512)…..(3x shared).. two gig cpu 6 gig gpu..?
think the ps4 cpu alright think if it hard an extra Jaguar it would be boss think could put like a fx8350.. think i would 4x the 2 gig then could add en extra gpu… ps4 motherboards alright i was like wy they have the front usb with like 4 gig ram then was like it probly usb 3.0 i like the harddrive set up.. so there 2 gig for the hard drive bluray and 25g ..
can sony flash my ps4 back to stock..? or can i network boot my ps4 with my vita
the ps4 wifi and bluthooth antena look real shity or its like real tiny…ooh and think to cool down the ps4 the 8×512 of ram on the outher side of the heat sink could use like a heat sink or try to cool both side of the ps4 motherboard around the cpu gpu crazy i think sony thought to cool jus the cpu buts its a cpu gpu lucky ram heat sinks r cheap on amazon..
Thats just 11 or 12 bitcoins 😛
Vita is a sinking ship anyway.
Hi Wololo, Total Nobb and others
Make the TN V4 paying, 1€/1$ each download and buy with the money the vita reverse engeneering to make a nativ hack so we can start developp some good homebrew or emulator like ppsspp pcsx2 dolphin and moar desu.
Make a kickstarter campain for the reverse engineering funds.
“apparently putting your Vita’s CPU in a sulfuric acid bath will void your warranty.”
HAHAHAH.
bumers but my vita could use a cpu upgrade but then i void the warranty on most my things..