Nintendo 3DS tech spec exploration

September 22nd, 2010, 18:56 Posted By: wraggster

Last night's leak of the Nintendo 3DS tech spec reveals a lean, power efficient device assembled from a relatively mediocre set of components. Once again, the platform holder has used a selection of established, cheap, off-the-shelf chips and made it feel fresh and new thanks to the implementation of a game-changing concept: in this case, glasses-free stereo 3D.

According to IGN's anonymous source, 3DS is powered by twin ARM11 CPUs clocked at a relatively meagre 266MHz, while overall system storage (sans SD card) is 1.5GB. Onboard RAM is 64MB, with 4MB of video memory. DMP's PICA-200 graphics chip is said to be running at a relatively lightweight 133MHz.

First things first, let's address the plausibility of the source. IGN has a reputation for outing notoriously secretive Nintendo specs and in its previous stories on DS and Wii, history has proven them to be entirely correct. With a track record like that, it would be unwise to bet against the veracity of this story assuming it comes from the same source. More than that, there are other elements to the spec which clearly corroborate with other little-known, recently unearthed facts about the system - and we'll get to that a bit later. In short, the story appears eminently credible.

Assessing the hardware set-up, it's obvious that the assembled components represent a massive step-up from the existing DSi, while measuring up badly against the latest in smartphone technology. The 64MB of RAM is particularly disappointing, bearing in mind that the PSP has shipped with the exact same amount of memory since the launch of the PSP-2000 (the first "slim" model). On the plus side, there is no smartphone OS required to tax RAM resources, but regardless, it's still a surprisingly low amount.

The 4MB of video RAM may seem particularly appalling (and is equal to the amount found in PlayStation 2), but bearing in mind that the 3DS only has to deal with an 800x240 framebuffer it shouldn't cause undue concern. What the RAM would actually be used for is also a prime concern - is that 4MB for textures only, or is it akin to the 10MB of eDRAM attached to the Xbox 360 graphics chip? The original story is, alas, short of details.

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