When I see how far RPCS3 went (and will eventually go), I want to know what it takes to reverse engineer a console like PS{3,4,Vita} from scratch without any access to Sony SDK/Dev consoles. PS* wiki(s) have only the results of community's reverse engineering efforts, although I must admit I've been surfing them only for one day. Techniques and procedures are not so evident for me, particularly:
- What skills are required?
- What are the initial points of interaction with the vanilla system?
- What techniques are commonly used against each point of interaction?
- Where to obtain info on hardware components and their function(s)/internal(s)?
- How to figure out the ISA of CPU/GPU? Does somebody need to possess $$$ lab like ChipWorks?
- What crypto/DRM measures are present there and how could one possibly reverse/emulate them?
- Is/Was any sort of insider knowledge required/used?