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I've been considering the idea of starting a project to reverse engineer hard to find 3dfx cards, such as Voodoo5 6k, etc. I have heard of no one accomplishing a task, so I thought it would be good to see what people think. The goal would be to essentially study a specific card to make a schematic of the layout on a PCB design program such as Altium, etc. The schematic could then be sent to a company to reproduce the cards in small amounts. I am considering doing a task such as this, but starting on a simpler card such as a Banshee based card or something else. I know some 3dfx BGA chips are still available from countries like China, just do a search for the part number of the chip

An even more appealing aspect of this reverse engineering is to "upgrade" a card. For example, when submitting a PCB layout for production, specify faster RAM that is compatible, or use a socketable BIOS chip, etc...

Any thoughts?

I thought of it, but I found nearly impossible to restore full schematic of multilayer pcb correctly. And even one error will make it unusable.

Yes, one error and board will work unstable, but we can try to clone simple card, at least we can try to make original color PCB, for example white or red. Maybe Voodoo graphics, Maybe Voodoo 2. Is someone know how to scan board layers and explore the layout.

I think real schematic is top secret even for Voodoo graphics, yes?

White (27 Апрель 2012 - 20:32) писал:

I've just looked at my Voodoo2. It has at least 4 layers. Not such a big difference between V5 and V2...

And what about Voodoo graphics? How can we scan it? And how many card we need to crash for positive result?
Maybe ex-engineers from 3dfx could give us board schematic?

I haven't got any Voodoo graphics.

If there are way to effectively soften/dissolve the pcb epoxy and then carefully remove layers one by one - there are some chances to reverse. But I do not know any.

dE fENDER, i can give at least one Voodoo graphics from Diamond to try reverse engineering.

На русском: Я могу дать как минимум одну Voodoo graphics производства Diamond для проб реверс-инженеринга.

I believe most 3dfx boards are 8 layer PCBs.

I think the cheapest 3dfx cards to destroy in the process of designing PCB are V3 or Banshee based cards

Well, i agree. I think we could buy Voodoo 3 or get a gift from club friends.
For example Voodoo 3 2000 is a nice sample, or Velocity 1000 16 MB.

White (27 Апрель 2012 - 21:45) писал:

Thanks, but I see no ways to do this at the moment. Epoxy dissolving implies experimenting with dichloroethane and other dangerous substances. I have no conditions and desire to work with them.

Most cards will have the amount PCB layers printed on the card. Also, there is existing info on amount of PCB layers on the net.
It is possible to determine layer numbers by shaving or sanding down a board?

Цитата

http://www.thedodgeg...com/3dfx/v3.htm

gwb (27 Апрель 2012 - 22:55) писал:

Usually it doesn't matter, how much there are if the count more than 2, difficulty is the same. Three layers used very rare, usually the next step is 4 - 2 external for data, 1 for Vcc, 1 for ground shield. 5, 6 and more - differently...
It's easy to split the new list of unetched board in half with a knife. In Soviet Union it was very difficult to get a pcb material, but my classmate had got some boards somewhere with 2 layers of copper. For his purposes it would be enough 1-layer board, but to etch another layer totally would be inexcusable cost. So he spitted it and received two very accurate 1-layer boards.

In case of factory made pcb to split it would be difficult cause metal interconnections. Most probably you'll receive passing break and determine layer number, but it will not give you too much information of schematic.
In case of shaving or sanding down? I really do not know. Perhaps. It would require some experiments. Insulating layers are usually translucent, so it's sounds good.

I have several Voodoo3 cards that I can donate to the project if one feels comfortable to disassemble for research.

Me too. I can donate Voodoo 3.