i guess reversing the ic chip is not like having verilog code or other fancy stuff. i presume it is like having all the layers scans in proper resolution appropriate to making new lithography.
But without knowing which function block is doing what and how the timings correlate to each parts within the chip, you are having a hard time. It would be so much better to have a higher level starting point where you can build upon and have the proper chance to actually test some things (maybe even on an FPGA basis).
Otherwise I just see a reproduction possible, if at all (since you need exact the same manufacturing process and tooling that was used).
Hi Löschzwerg, long time no chat (I used to hang out on Falconfly back in the day).
Theoretically, this isn't too far outside of the realm of possibility, and I've actually floated the idea of doing this myself numerous times with a custom Xilinx or Altera board (I have a few DE10s laying around, but they're not really fit for the job).
The SST1 datasheet that's floating around (containing the multiple system configurations, register set etc) contains more than enough information about the high level workings of the chipset (both FBI and TREX) to write enough Verilog to get some level of functionality going, let alone from all of the emulation code from Aaron Giles and the Dosbox guys. The biggest hurdle here would most certainly be the chip to chip interconnect protocol between the multiple TREX/FBI setups and the multiple rendering system configuration (which I assume is SLI). If I remember correctly, Scott stated that it was a total custom job, and without the TREX/FBI pinouts (the topmost FBI and bottommost TREX pins), it would be quite difficult to infer how this was implemented, and probably require a total reinvention. AFAIK, no kind of documentation as to how this works was ever leaked from 3Dfx, and if it has, I've never come across it.
At the end of the day, it's really just a big pixel pushing state machine that the software writes into, just with a lot of intricate, moving parts.
Anthony Sadly you can't get away with this as easily as with reversing a PCB ala buzzing out signals. You can effectively "guess" what certain sections of the chip are from a microscope shot of the die, but apart from that you don't really get any meaningful information. A pinout/datasheet of the IC provides significantly more information as to the abstract concept of the actual chip design.