Most of you have probably heard about the mysterious "Sony unbricker battery" that was discovered, as well as a memory stick recovered from a refurbished unit. There's been plenty of rumors going around, and of course, speculation follows. It's hard to separate the logical from the unreasonable, but I'm going to do the best I can. Basically, I'll try and sift through what's been said, and see if we can make some sense out of it.

For the previous 'bit regarding the battery, you can go here.

Interested? Read on!




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before I go deep into the discussion, you can follow along at PSPGen [lame Google translation], where the information came from.

Let's first put everything out on the table. Below are several pictures, showing the battery itself, and some of the functions it can (supposedly) perform. Click on each thumbnail for a full resolution picture, courtesy of PSPGen.














"If asked how we obtained these pictures, we would be obliged to answer that this information is classified top-secret."


A few of the pictures show the battery itself, with a small display screen on the outside. There are no pictures of the display screen lit up, which might make the report appear more accurate. Instead, the only other shots are of the PSP's screen while the battery is plugged in. The battery doesn't look like something that was randomly made to spark rumors, but there's still no telling.

Here's some specs on the battery, according to PSPGen:


1.1v-3.5v debug unit for connecting through the serial port in 3rd. battery pin.

Transmission of data is UNENCRYPTED but uses a XOR algorithm for transmission (easily parsed and analyzed).

Contains any number of IPLs (different ones for each motherboard revision (TA-XXX))

IPL is loaded into the Kernel Memory. ME area seems most likely (IPL of the PSP is the same but missing 2 essential modules that the debug unit has).

Contains ipl_mg_modules.bin and ipl_mg_nanddriver.bin

IPL is encrypted in 3 stages. Easily decrypted to show stages, but not for decrypt each individual stage.

Contains a 40x120 column TFT screen for display.

Has a SERIAL port for PC connectivity.

Seems to have a 32MB ROM IMAGE on Flash.

8MB of RAM.

Nickel-Cadmium Battery Cell (possibly 76 hour battery life).

AC/DC adapter port 15V.

Contains 4 buttons (on/off, reset, connect/disconnect, menu).

Arrow keys UP and DOWN for menu.

The details of the battery are what gives most of it it's credit. Of course, anyone could develop a list of specs, but these seem to be very knowledgeable. The bit about 76 hour battery life could be a typo, but certainly wouldn't be realistic for a battery of that size, even being a Nickel-Cadmium. Still, for most people, it's the seeing that leads to believing.

The problem with only showing screenshots is that the PSP itself can display still images. Because they haven't released a video yet, there's not telling that they didn't just create the images, and display them under "Photo". This sort of assumption is really skeptical, but that's often the attitude that follows such rumors. Unlike the legal system, when it comes to rumors or unbelievable news, it's usually fake unless proven authentic. For now, there's no telling what's real and what isn't.

I have trouble believing that a memory stick was left in a returned PSP unit, that could certainly happen. A "special battery" would certainly be a leak, and not something that was accidentally mailed to an owner. As far as it's authenticity, I can't really believe it. While the idea of a magic battery that can access the PSP's guts through a 3rd battery pin is pretty awesome, and a possibility, there just isn't enough to back it up.

If a video hits the web, showing the battery being inserted and then the PSP booting up, I will certainly change my opinion. For now, simply reading a list of specs, analyzing some pictures, and hearing that they came from a classified source.

I'm listing this rumor as doubtful, but would certainly rethink when more information becomes available.

Via PSP-Vault

Seems very fishy to me. i think its pretty fake.

Would someone really be that bored to customize a battery just to make it up? Seems like a lot of work for nothing if that was the case.

well that sure would be pretty cool huh?

im with you on the sceptisism though, I will beileve it when i see it... though if this is real then can we expect the big mod-chip makers and accessory company to come out with one?

they would have to have firmwares built in... so a licenece with sony would be required.... hmmmmm

I have not seen serial communications through one pin only but I am sure that there are lots of things like that that are beyond my knowledge. The language and hardware handshake functions would have to be totally custom and the data transfer (if possible) wold be incredibly slow.

Boy, it would be cool if this were real and I could just buy one, making PSP firmware testing so much easier.

Something like this has to be real, Sony has got to be able to bring back bricked PSPs by forcing a firmware into a them; even if it's not in the form of some dreamy battery.

2 cents,
F.

I can't be forced to copy/paste in every topic that contains this subject. With these pictures, it's pretty clear that if you had the proper know how, or could manufacture a board for the PSP battery that would allow these functions AND get the coding that would be on that batteries flash it would take an incredibly insane amount of time and skill.

It seems realistic within certain guidelines, but there is no way that SONY would release something like this. If you're able to find one, it will be incredibly rare and expensive. So good luck, and good night.



Compare the info here, and the video in this thread http://www.psp-spot.com/forums/Video-v350-...ina-t41625.html. I don't see the menu interface depicted here in the video at all. Classified sources to interweb videos, the info isn't adding up.

I really hope that this is real, because it would help the psp hacking world ALOT!!!!

sounds pretty real to me. be pretty surprised and disappointed if it was all fake.

I think its too complicated to be fake. Who would really waste their time to come up w/ something like this.