ROM

Overview

PS2 contains one or two Mask-ROMs, "BOOT ROM" containing the BIOS and "DVD ROM" containing the DVD Player, with the latter being optional, since early PS2 consoles (SCPH-10000 and SCPH-15000, A-chassis) came with no DVD Player preinstalled. On these consoles, it had to be installed onto Memory Card from the Utility Disc bundled with the console. PSX also has no DVD Player in ROM; it's loaded from HDD instead. In many consoles containing a version of the DVD Player in ROM, it is physically located within the same ROM chip as the BIOS. Despite this, the DVD Player section of the ROM is electrically addressed independently and handled as a separate device by IOP. Other consoles contain two physically separate ICs. Many fat and early slim motherboards have solder pads for both variants and can have these installed either way.

The following sections are incomplete and work in progress!

Numbering

General

All BIOS and DVD ROMs have the version of the BIOS / DVD Player they store marked on the IC. In all consoles except A-chassis (SCPH-10000 and SCPH-15000), these versions are prefixed with a "B" for BIOS (e.g. B-20-030) or a "D" for DVD (e.g. D-221-030). On ROMs containing both, BIOS and DVD Player, both versions are printed separately on the IC. Instead of the dashes within the version numbers given in the examples, the writing can also have spaces, or no separator at all.

Fat consoles

For the BIOS ROM, the first group of digits defines the region (e.g. 00 for Japan, 10 for North America, 20 for Europe). For the DVD Player ROM, it additionally also defines the DVD Region Code and PAL capability. The second group defines the actual version.

BIOS Examples:
B-00-100: 00 = Japan, 100 = version (from a Japanese SCPH-10000 console)
B-20-030: 20 = Europe, 030 = version (from a UK SCPH-35003 console)

DVD Examples:
D-020-020: 0 = Japan, 2 = DVD region code 2, 0 = no PAL capability, 020 = version (from a Japanese SCPH-18000 console)
D-341-110: 3 = Oceania, 4 = DVD region code 4, 1 = PAL capability, 110 = version (from an Australian SCPH-50002 console)

Slim consoles

On slim consoles, numbering has changed a lot, since these consoles have multi-region ROMs for both, BIOS and DVD Player, which are patched on-the-fly by MechaCon depending on it's regional settings from EEPROM.

Known BOOT ROM versions

• 00-100
  • BOOT ROM of early SCPH-10000 consoles (A-chassis, GH-001)
  • Found in consoles manufactured until March 25th, 2000
  • Is the only version that does not block launching the buggy DVD Player 1.00 from Memory Card, which allows a region code check bypass
  • Contains the Protokernel, which lacks several features and has several differences to later versions, creating some issues with homebrew software
  • Comes in a different package with a much larger footprint than all other ROMs except 00-101
• 00-101
  • BOOT ROM of later SCPH-10000 and and all SCPH-15000 consoles (A-chassis, GH-001 and GH-003)
  • Found in SCPH-10000 consoles manufactured later on as well as in SCPH-15000 consoles
  • Blocks launching DVD Player 1.00 from Memory Card
  • Contains the Protokernel, which lacks several features and has several differences to later versions, creating some issues with homebrew software
  • Comes in a different package with a much larger footprint than all other ROMs except 00-100
• B-00-012
  • BOOT ROM of SCPH-18000 consoles (A+-chassis GH-003 and AB-chassis GH-008)
  • On GH-003, the ROM IC is located on a daughter board due to GH-003 not having the correct footprint at the ROM-pads
  • First japanese BIOS to run the final kernel instead of the Protokernel
  • First japanese BIOS to be bundled with a DVD Player ROM

Known DVD ROM versions

• D-110-010
  • DVD Player 1.10U
  • DVD ROM of US launch consoles, SCPH-30001 (B-chassis GH-004 and B'-chassis GH-005)
  • The first ROM-based DVD player to be built into consumer PS2 consoles
• D-221-020
  • DVD Player 1.20E
  • DVD ROM of european launch consoles, SCPH-30003/SCPH-30004
• D-221-030
  • DVD Player 1.30E
  • DVD ROM of early european D-chassis SCPH-30001/2/3/4 consoles (no R behind the model number)
• D-020-020
  • DVD Player 2.00J
  • DVD ROM of all japanese SCPH-18000 consoles (A+-chassis GH-003 and AB-chassis GH-008)
  • First DVD Player to support the IR remote control