Hacking DSi - GBA internal hardware?

CoconutCake

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OK, we all know DSi has no GBA slot.

But does it stil have GBA hardware compatbility to run GBA code? So for example, is it conceivable that flash carts could run GBA games on a DSi somehow even though you can't plug real GBA carts in?

Thanks for any info.
 

CoconutCake

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I'm just wondering because I like the DSi's better controls (I hate my white launch Lite's dpad) and the slightly bigger screens. Maybe I should just get a black DS Lite and hope I get a better dpad...

I really don't get the point of two cameras instead of a GBA slot. And half the battery life... WTF Nintendo?!

But if GBA games could somehow be run on DSi, that would make up for the missing slot (mostly).
 

Martiin

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ultimatex said:
i think youre right, if nintendo remove gba hardware on dsi it will conflict on a whole hardware or maybe it will become malfunction. That's only my suggest.

great depression for Guitar Hero DS fans who want to *hopefully* trade in their DS lite for a DSi
 

Shabadage

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Well it lacks the ARM7 (The GBA core). There have been reports that the DSi is now running an ARM9 (The normal DS processor) and an ARM11 (We think, we haven't identified it yet). We know that ARM7 has to be emulated somehow, being a major component of the DS. The question becomes if they are emulating the full GBA mode, or only the DS instruction set on the ARM7.
 

Arno

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Shabadage said:
Well it lacks the ARM7 (The GBA core). There have been reports that the DSi is now running an ARM9 (The normal DS processor) and an ARM11 (We think, we haven't identified it yet). We know that ARM7 has to be emulated somehow, being a major component of the DS. The question becomes if they are emulating the full GBA mode, or only the DS instruction set on the ARM7.

I'm actually pretty sure that it still has the ARM7, and just a beefed up ARM9.
 

Shabadage

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Arno said:
Shabadage said:
Well it lacks the ARM7 (The GBA core). There have been reports that the DSi is now running an ARM9 (The normal DS processor) and an ARM11 (We think, we haven't identified it yet). We know that ARM7 has to be emulated somehow, being a major component of the DS. The question becomes if they are emulating the full GBA mode, or only the DS instruction set on the ARM7.

I'm actually pretty sure that it still has the ARM7, and just a beefed up ARM9.

I seriously doubt it. The Arm7's aren't really massively produced anymore, and they're starting to get more expensive again. Same thing happened with the original Xbox. The 500 Mhz (?) celerons were getting expensive to produce, so they upgraded the processor to 733's I believe, but kept it clocked down.

Nintendo has a habit of doing this anyway. It happened in the SP (or was it the Micro?). The old GB/GBC chipsets were getting expensive, so they cut them out of the design and emulated their functions (Within the GBA architecture, not it's GB/GBC functions) with a more powerful chip. Actually, all the companies do this at some point. Even Sony did it with the PS1 hardware (which was "emulated", it wasn't the actual PS1 hardware, but something close) within the PS2, which led to the minor compatibility problems with some PS1 games.
 

cory1492

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Shabadage said:
Well it lacks the ARM7 (The GBA core). There have been reports that the DSi is now running an ARM9 (The normal DS processor) and an ARM11 (We think, we haven't identified it yet). We know that ARM7 has to be emulated somehow, being a major component of the DS. The question becomes if they are emulating the full GBA mode, or only the DS instruction set on the ARM7.
As far as I know the arm cores are made to be backwards compatible instruction wise - in this case quite so as they had the opportunity to fully customize any cpu core they put in at the time they designed any dual cored single substrate chip (arm being a fairly easy core to modify and use on even FPGA.) Even if they are using a newer revision to take the place of the arm7, likely all they'd do to 'emulate' an arm7 is underclock (or even just use up any extra cycles in internal waits.)

GBA itself had very little internal memory and relied on the cart bus for running code, so theoretically internal flash or even just the increased RAM could support GBA - I for one wouldn't expect all that many titles to be released as Ware even if they have left GBA mode intact, and I doubt any that they'd consider releasing will be the max size (seems DSi is the target of small, quick, time kill games - the kind shovels are liberally applied to.)

If one were to fully enter the realm of speculation, a high clocked single core could dispatch both arm7 and arm9 without a huge increase to power draw if they have scaled down the die as they have been doing on other consoles recently.
 

Arno

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Shabadage said:
Arno said:
Shabadage said:
Well it lacks the ARM7 (The GBA core). There have been reports that the DSi is now running an ARM9 (The normal DS processor) and an ARM11 (We think, we haven't identified it yet). We know that ARM7 has to be emulated somehow, being a major component of the DS. The question becomes if they are emulating the full GBA mode, or only the DS instruction set on the ARM7.

I'm actually pretty sure that it still has the ARM7, and just a beefed up ARM9.
The old GB/GBC chipsets were getting expensive, so they cut them out of the design and emulated their functions (Within the GBA architecture, not it's GB/GBC functions) with a more powerful chip.

Everything else you said made sense. But, with the micro and the DS, the way that the GBAs played GB/GBC games was with a switch in the slot (pressed when the corners of the old game paks hit it) so that it cut some processor power. This mechanism was too large to fit in the micro or the DS, and that's why they cut support.

Even if it is new hardware, if Nintendo's planning to give us GBA games on VC, they probably have a way of emulating the hardware.
 

Shabadage

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Arno said:
Shabadage said:
Arno said:
Shabadage said:
Well it lacks the ARM7 (The GBA core). There have been reports that the DSi is now running an ARM9 (The normal DS processor) and an ARM11 (We think, we haven't identified it yet). We know that ARM7 has to be emulated somehow, being a major component of the DS. The question becomes if they are emulating the full GBA mode, or only the DS instruction set on the ARM7.

I'm actually pretty sure that it still has the ARM7, and just a beefed up ARM9.
The old GB/GBC chipsets were getting expensive, so they cut them out of the design and emulated their functions (Within the GBA architecture, not it's GB/GBC functions) with a more powerful chip.

Everything else you said made sense. But, with the micro and the DS, the way that the GBAs played GB/GBC games was with a switch in the slot (pressed when the corners of the old game paks hit it) so that it cut some processor power. This mechanism was too large to fit in the micro or the DS, and that's why they cut support.

Even if it is new hardware, if Nintendo's planning to give us GBA games on VC, they probably have a way of emulating the hardware.

Err, that's off. That switched just controlled which processor got the power. It was literally a tiny switch with a few Motherboard leads running off of it.
 

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