Hacking 3DS decapping fundraising topic.

[Bearpowers]

No, nothing can guarantee that. But this could open up a significant amount of new data about the inner-workings of the 3ds. A successful chip decapping would be a big deal -- worth a $5 risk imo.

Eh, Maybe I'll do 15 now and if it ends up needing more throw some more in.

Need to get one of those cards to put cash in my paypal instantly today.

 

[yuyuyup]

Donated $20, bastard Nintendo said the 3DS would have netflix so OBVIOUSLY I assumed they would rent feature-length 3D movies, which of course they never have. As an owner since day one, I will celebrate the day the 3DS gets opened up. And yes, I know you can convert movies, but the 20 FPS cap isn't worth it.

 

[elisherer]

Donated $25... I don't want to see the 3ds disappear because it's not hacked... homebrew communities are the best!

 

[Bearpowers]

Also I have a question, when you raise the 2K how long will this process take to finish?

How long will decapping the 3DS take?

 

[gshock]

I think the problem it you need to spruce up that donate page.

Alternative.

However my question is how did you get someone to agree to do this? Do they not care about legal implications? Or is it perfectly fine to do whatever you want to your property.

Reverse engineering the chips is legal in most countries. Labs offer the services because they're also used during hardware-prototyping, finding manufacturing defects and copyright infringement. (legitimate uses do exist)

But what exactly does this mean, if it is successfully delayered what will that entail for the homebrew community?

Does that mean pretty much guaranteed to run code not approved by Nintendo in the immediate or near future?

I can't say for sure. The description at 3DBrew:Fundraiser #4 is pretty realistic.

Also I have a question, when you raise the 2K how long will this process take to finish?

How long will decapping the 3DS take?

5-7 business days.

 

[Bearpowers]

I'm 100% donating money today. What will you do with the finds? make all the data public on 3DSbrew? keep some to yourself for awhile so Nintendo doesn't do any patching? etc

 

[Treeko]

All people here asking,will Nintendo be able to patch some of the findings,the OP says that this decapping process is solely used to find the inner hardware workings of the 3ds and some vital data which will help the Scene progress faster,Nintendo cannot patch the inner workings through a
update if I am not mistaken,the only way they can counter this is by a hardware revision,which I am pretty sure will follow IF THIS WORKS OUT,anyways I donated 25$ .

 

[RodrigoDavy]

I commented this with a friend on youtube and he said this to me:

"The Guru, dumper of the MAME project, knows a place where they charge $200 for chip. It might be a good idea to talk to him"
"O Guru, principal dumper do projeto MAME, tem uns contatos com um lugar que ele conseguiu arrumar por $200 por chip! Talvez fosse uma boa para tentarem falar com ele!"

Don't know if he's information is of any help, but just in case.

 

[rsdroopy]

How can decap help extracting the boot code? Boot code is stored in a piece of ROM inside the System-On-Chip, can the boot code be extracted by analyzing the image of that ROM?

 

[Mike19]

$314 raised already!? Now that we know people are willing to donate, this should go on the front page.

 

[SifJar]

I commented this with a friend on youtube and he said this to me:

Don't know if he's information is of any help, but just in case.

I can only assume the price will depend on the chip.

How can decap help extracting the boot code? Boot code is stored in a piece of ROM inside the System-On-Chip, can the boot code be extracted by analyzing the image of that ROM?

Yes, analysing the microscope image can give the data stored on the ROM in the chip.

So anyone know why this topic disappeared, and now the one about it disappearing has disappeared? (I posted in the other thread, and people must have quoted my post, as I came back to 3 alerts, but when I tried to view them they had disappeared, and then I noticed that that thread had disappeared; people either quoted or liked my post I assume) I'd like to see what was said in the other thread following my post. (Perhaps a mod could merge at least some of the posts from that thread into this one?)

 

[RupeeClock]

I'm a little skeptical and hesitant, but I think I'll pitch in now and then if there's more support.

If GBAtemp takes a more official stance on this I'd definitely be interested. GBAtemp has had homebrew bounties too, maybe this could be the motherload?

 

[Rydian]

I agree this should be front-paged or something.

I commented this with a friend on youtube and he said this to me:

Don't know if he's information is of any help, but just in case.

Well they tend to work with less complex chips with much larger (and less) transistors and junk, easier to physically analyze... and it's generally just a single one-purpose chip like a custom coprocessor or something used for graphics decompression or a simple CPU for AI. The 3DS however, uses a "chip" that houses multiple sections (SoC, system on a chip), and it's a more modern chip with many many more transistors and much smaller ones at that, increasing the amount of time and work done to document it.

The guy that started this mentioned that the $2000 was the quote for the system, it stands to reason that simple (by today's standards) jobs would be cheaper.

 

[Janthran]

Good luck with this, but I really don't have money..

 

[crediar]

Every dollar counts so even if you only can spare a buck donate it anyway!

 

[Zero]

It's not letting me donate. This recipient is currently unable to receive money.

 

[gtmtnbiker]

I donated $30. Good luck with the project.

 

[Gameplayer9198]

It's not letting me donate. This recipient is currently unable to receive money.

same here

 

[totalnoob617]

wouldnt one of the flashcard teams have done this by now ,i wonder?

 

[SifJar]

wouldnt one of the flashcard teams have done this by now ,i wonder?

This is just a guess, but maybe in the countries where these teams are based (usually countries such as China AFAIK) it is harder to find a professional lab to do this (or more expensive). Getting the equipment to do it yourself is far more expensive, so that wouldn't be an option. (I read one figure when researching decapping yesterday which said the equipment could cost in excess of $50,000 USD).

It may also not be directly useful to them. Depending on what all is found there, there may not be anything which would allow a flashcard to work. There may be stuff that allows hacks of some sort, but if it's not flashcard based, it's harder to sell, so it's not profitable for the flashcard teams. At that point they may well try and do something akin to the DRM dongles of the PS3 scene with hacks that don't rely on a specific flashcard, but still check for it's presence and refuse to operate without it, so you still have to pay them.