| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Xbox modchips now allow a user to completely circumvent the BIOS on-board the video game console's mainboard. This allows a console to run code, such as user-created applications or games, not licensed or published by Microsoft. One of the main uses in the modding community of this ability is to provide a non-Microsoft BIOS that does not contain any copyrighted code that will run the Linux Operating System from a DVD or the Xbox hard drive.
All Playstation 2 original discs have a series of pits and bumps before the data region, which cannot be read or writen to using a conventional CD Burner. Due to this, discs which have been copied using conventional means will not have this authentication region present, and therefore the disc will fail to authenticate.
Playstation 2 modchips come in two types, a "swap" modchip and a "no-swap" modchip.
The "swap" modchips are not as advanced as their sucessors. In order to boot a non-original disc, the operator must first load an original disc, the use the modchip to swap the disc out for a non-oringinal without the PS2 knowing. Once this swap has been performed, the operator can instruct the PS2 to load the code from the non-original disc. Since the PS2 does not realize the disc has been changed, the authentication code is never re-checked. These chips usually connect directly to the BIOS with 4 or 6 wires, or are connected in between the ribbon cable which controls the eject function of the DVD drive and the mainboard.
The "no-swap" modchips, rather than replacing the existing BIOS with a new BIOS that allows backups and imported games to run, the modchip sends a series of signals to the BIOS which are present when a CD or DVD disk is an original. This effectivly allows any disc without the special authentication data to run. These modchips are usually more difficult to install into the console, requiring usually 19 to 24 wires to be soldered to the mainboard by the installer.
Modchips were made illegal in the US by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This angered many people because they couldn't play homemade games. In early 2003, iSONEWS.com was taken over for selling modchips. However, in many countries modchips remain legal for backup and import uses.