Scene Veteran Zecoxao recently published a tutorial to install a Custom firmware on the PS4 EMC. Now, before you jump out of joy at the words “Custom Firmware”, do understand that the EMC is a “peripheral” processor on the PS4, that is mostly used for diagnostics/debug/peripheral control.

As scene member Michael Crump points out in an excellent video (below), you can use this tool to “change temperature limits, generate some beeps, and change the PS4’s fan speed”. This is not your typical Custom firmware, but rather gives you low level control on a processor used for diagnostics and to control some PS4 peripherals.

For the typical end user, the value of this is limited, added to the fact that you can easily brick your console if you send it the wrong commands. We didn’t really want to jump on the unnecessary hype, which is why we’ve waited a couple days to write this article.

Bottom line is, we don’t recommend anybody to try this, unless you’re a seasoned dev who happens to be working on some very specific hack on the console.

There’s a strong distinction to be made here between the technical achievement (as a few scene members have pointed out, most of the information and keys to achieve this have been out in the open for a few years, but it still takes a lot of effort to put everything together in an understandable tutorial!) and the usefulness for the layman. This release could potentially be a big deal for developers out there.

With all of this being said, if you’re interested into how it’s done, Zecoxao’s tutorial can be found at the source link below.

What is PS4 EMC

From psdevwiki:

EMC could stand for External Micro Controller. EMC was named MediaCon by some people when its name was still unknown.

The role of EMC is to load EMC IPL and EAP kernel, to be an interface for icc for the main APU kernel and Syscon and to offer a debug interface via UART that does not rely on Syscon or main APU. EMC runs its own FreeBSD kernel. It is a Marvell Armada, an ARM-based SoC. Sony stuck a PCIe bridge on it. It exposes ARM peripherals to the x86 side. There is some extra stuff (e.g. HPET, ACPI stuff).

EMC cpuid = 412FC231 (ARM Cortex-M3 r2p1). CPU clock: maybe about 100MHz.

How to install the PS4 EMC Custom firmware

This will only work on Phat PS4s models CUH-1000 and CUH-1100. There are a hardware and a firmware method to do this. The hardware method being the most resilient and working on any firmware, while the firmware method will work on some models of Jailbroken PS4s.

Use at your own risk, and check the full tutorial at the source below.

source: Zecoxao via psx-place