On my Genesis save circuit, I use a transistor set up that I also use for my SNES 256K SRAM save circuit. The Genesis /VRES line connects to the base of the transistor through a resistor, and /VRES is also directly connected to the 74HC74 necessary for the Genesis save circuit logic. I find that if I use a 1k ohm resistor for the base resistance (RB) on the transistor, the SRAM doesn't seem to be activated. It gets pulled low for a split second then goes high and stays there, and stops trying to activate. If I use a 10k or 100k ohm resistor, though, it works fine, and you can see the multiple pulses of the SRAM's /CE.
I came across this problem because I was testing a new design, and I didn't feel like fishing out a 10k resistor when I had plenty of 1k ones nearby. I tried a bunch of different things and finally tried changing the base resistance, to find that that was the solution. I don't have this problem on SNES, for example, I can use any resistor value 100k or less (including just shorting the base resistor) and it'll work fine. So I'm not sure exactly what's going on. My only guess is that the /VRES line can't supply as much current as the SNES /RESET line, and that causes some temporary overcurrent condition on the Genesis. (Note the game doesn't freeze when it tries to access the SRAM, it just stops trying to access it).
I discussed this with lidnariq, and he gave me some good information about the internals of the consoles:
So, I'm not really worried about the situation too much, since I know the solution, I just don't know exactly why the solution works. Schematics and o'scope traces attached. (Note that the traces represent the /CE line on the SRAM (/CE_SRAM_BATT) - they are actually measured at the base of the transistor in the figures, but it yields similar results when measuring the /CE line of the SRAM directly)lidnariq wrote:The SNES /RESET line is a 1kΩ resistor from a - I believe - push/pull output from S-PPU2. https://wiki.superfamicom.org/schematic ... nd-pinouts
The Genesis has a 47kΩ pullup on /VRES, and it's pulled to ground by the 68k and/or bus arbiter. https://gamesx.com/wiki/doku.php?id=sch ... _megadrive