RomRaider

Is disassembly, analysis and definition modification/development something that requires extensive computer science/software engineering background or is it something a reasonably intelligent wrench with basic computer background could learn?

I am well inclined mechanically, but this stuff fascinates me and I would love to understand it beyond just using the RR software.

+1.
I have been a CAD guy since 2000 so I am no stranger to a computer. I have never done any programming/disassembly but it seems like something that might be up my alley.
What software should i look for as a novice and where can i find more info on how to use this software in a way to be helpful for our RR community?

It doesn't require an extensive background, but it definitely helps to have some kind of programming under your belt.

Before actually disassembling, I recommend a thorough understanding of binary and hexadecimal number systems. Things like: endianness, most/least significant bytes, bitmasks, signed/unsigned numbers, and single precision floating point conversions. Once you tackle this, start reading the threads in this forum, you should be able to understand most of them.

From there, pick up the Hitachi SH2E software manuals, and the appropriate hardware manual (7055 or 7058). Both are available from Renesas support/downloads. The software manual has a detailed description of the instruction set. The hardware manual contains everything you need to know about the ECU from pinout to interrupt processing and more.

As far as I know, the only disassembler is IDA Pro Advanced, but the free trial does not support SuperH and a license is $$$$$$$$$.

Once I finish up some work I'll be putting together either a PDF faq or a few screen capture videos.

Outstanding info Fujiillin. I do understand binary and hexadecimal numbers, compliments of a few CS and IT classes in college. Thanks for the info and a place to start!

I started and had no background what-so-ever. But the learning curve is very steep! If you have the desire to learn though you'll be fine! I find the 16bit ecus easier to open up, work with, and understand, you might think about trying one of those as a starting point to get you familiar with how a program works and how IDA works. Once I made the jump over to 32bit I realized that had I not started with 16bit I would have given up really fast. But again, I had no background in programming, binary, hex or asm to start with.

There are a few threads on here, a few more over on openecu, and a few good people that are always willing to help! fujillin and hmanxx have really helped me with the 32 bit stuff!(thanks guys!)

Andy

what differences are there between the 16 and 32 bit systems besides the obvious number of bits.

Eleven - thanks for the heads up, guess ill have to DL some 16 bit roms and look at those first.

The opcodes are different, the addressing is different, the size limitation is different. It seems to me that they really took advantage of the extra size too. In the 16bits everything is nice and tidy for the most part, and you can tell the program is very efficient. In the 32bits it seems like there is an awful lot going on that sometimes doesn't seem necessary.

Andy