On Monday June 23, 1997, a day which some call “Black Monday” Directv and News Datacom implemented the P2 datastream.  Directv had been sending new access cards out to subscribers for over a year. The new card, dubbed the P2 or “H series” was developed to increase security of their conditional access system. The original P1 or “F series” card had been fully hacked, with many different cards available, some available for free. The P2 card looked similar to the old one, however it had been significantly designed internally different. Along with nearly doubling the EEPROM memory, it now had a intel-based internal Siemens processor, rather than the Motorola based processor that the F series had. This cards claim to fame however was the addition of another component called an ASIC, or Application Specific Integrated Circuit.

reclamaciones banco sabadell tarjetas

Several hackers had been working on cracking the EEPROM of the new card for some time now. One of the major problems that the F series hacks had was that they could not duplicate the Motorola processor perfectly, so they had to emulate it with an intel based one. This difference was one of the reasons that the cards were ECM’d so often. Another reason was that the software was often freely released on to the internet. Once released to the masses via the internet, its open season for DTV and NewsDatacom. So the processor problem was good news, however they still had to “dump” the EEPROM (Electronically, Erasable, Programmable, Read, Only, Memory) and extract the microcode out so they could begin on a testing solution.

Some of the developers of the F series cards such as AXA seemed to have underestimated the security of the new cards, as they expected to have the answer within a couple of weeks. There were several major problems. 1) Capital. Reverse engineering is very expensive, costs can easily soar to over $100 000. 2) Technical Knowledge. The developers had experience compiling bootstraps, however they lacked the technical experience or equipment to extract the microcode from the EEPROM, so it was necessary to send it to an outside lab in most cases. 3) Cost Effectiveness. The ASIC was a big problem. It was soon discovered how the ASIC worked, however because it was application specific, it was not available on the market and it would have to be manufactured from scratch. The cost of such a venture would be formidable.