The original PlayStation wasn’t built to be particularly compact, but later revisions like the PS One managed to get pretty small, while retaining CD media compatibility. However, console hacker Thedrew has managed to condense that already dinky PS One revision motherboard down to less than a quarter of its prior size. This custom PlayStation motherboard is the smallest ever made, according to Hackster, and perfectly timed to celebrate today's 31st anniversary of the console's release.
World's First Working Custom PS1 Motherboard - YouTube Watch On
Thedrew’s creation is an “Original hardware for the win” design. Sure, it could have gone much smaller if the project had been propped up by an FPGA, a modern SoC with an emulator, or some similar electronic/software concoction. This is the real deal, though, with original PS One rev PM-41 chip packages onboard. In other words, it uses Sony’s original CPU, GPU, SPU, RAM, and BIOS chips.
With these components in hand, Thedrew designed the most compact supporting motherboard his skills and resources would allow. The current working model is a quarter size of the PS One mobo, says the console hacker in the above video. Actually, Rev.1 of the compacted mobo measured just 73 x 59mm. That gives us the following rough comparison:
Original PlayStation motherboard – about 10 x 7-inches
PS One motherboard – about 7.5 x 5.5-inches
Thedrew’s PS One redesign – less than 3 x 2.5-inches
Now that the custom PlayStation motherboard is ready and working, we eagerly await the next steps from Thedrew. Towards the end of the video, he says, “now we have a working prototype, let’s make it even better.” This work should find its way into a range of projects under the umbrella term of “The PS One Redesign Series.”
The original PlayStation's anniversary
31 years ago today, Sony released its first blockbuster games console to the unsuspecting public. Commonly abbreviated as the PS, PSX, or PS1, this affordable box of wonders sparked the immersive 3D gaming home console revolution. The PS One (year 2000) was a significantly smaller footprint console that played the same first-gen games.
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