Hardware 3DS to use 2 PICA 200 chips

[Midna]

Oh. Of course. Duh. Thanks, Robbin.

 

[pachura]

*Facepalm* Who said that 2 wireless modules are wi fi?! They are one wi fi + one IR

Ahh, yes, I completely forgot they are putting this piece of crappy prehistoric technology in 3DS.

Therefore, the only new piece of information we can derive from this diagram is that there might be on-board rumble ("vibrating motor").

 

[TM2-Megatron]

DS(i) = ARM9 + ARM7 + DS-GPU
3DS = ARM-something + DS-GPU + Pica200

The DS has no GPU, as far as I know; just the two ARMs.

 

[ChuckBartowski]

TWO PICA200's. WOAH.

 

[Rydian]

Ahh, yes, I completely forgot they are putting this piece of crappy prehistoric technology in 3DS.

TV remotes and wiimote say hi?

 

[DiscostewSM]

DS(i) = ARM9 + ARM7 + DS-GPU
3DS = ARM-something + DS-GPU + Pica200

The DS has no GPU, as far as I know; just the two ARMs.

It has a custom GPU with buffers that hold the data needed for rendering. The job of the ARM9 in relation for 3D graphics is just to load it into those buffers via memory registers. The CPU, prior to loading, can do it's own manipulation of the 3D data though.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Ahh, yes, I completely forgot they are putting this piece of crappy prehistoric technology in 3DS.

TV remotes and wiimote say hi?

Crap, Nintendo is gonna add a Universal Remote app to their 3DSWare line!

 

[sendyo]

Is a PICA 200 Chip better than a NVIDIA Chip? Or is it the other way around?

 

[Deleted_171835]

Is a PICA 200 Chip better than a NVIDIA Chip? Or is it the other way around?

That's quite a vague question.
NVIDIA = not specific
Tegra = specific

 

[TM2-Megatron]

It has a custom GPU with buffers that hold the data needed for rendering. The job of the ARM9 in relation for 3D graphics is just to load it into those buffers via memory registers. The CPU, prior to loading, can do it's own manipulation of the 3D data though.

Is that new info or something? 'cuz I I can't find anythiing at all on that; just the two CPUs, which most people I've seen talking about the issue say handle everything.

 

[Midna]

DS(i) = ARM9 + ARM7 + DS-GPU
3DS = ARM-something + DS-GPU + Pica200

The DS has no GPU, as far as I know; just the two ARMs.

I thought so too

 

[sendyo]

Is a PICA 200 Chip better than a NVIDIA Chip? Or is it the other way around?

That's quite a vague question.
NVIDIA = not specific
Tegra = specific

>.< whats better than a pica 200 then?

 

[DiscostewSM]

It has a custom GPU with buffers that hold the data needed for rendering. The job of the ARM9 in relation for 3D graphics is just to load it into those buffers via memory registers. The CPU, prior to loading, can do it's own manipulation of the 3D data though.

Is that new info or something? 'cuz I I can't find anythiing at all on that; just the two CPUs, which most people I've seen talking about the issue say handle everything.

It's rather old info, which has been available for years.

I say "custom" because some would not consider it a full-fledged GPU, but the DS contains 3D hardware in the form of a Geometry Engine and a Rendering Engine, both separate from either CPU.

If you want info on the internal workings of the DS (or GBA), go here. The info was collected by the author of the No$GBA emulator, and is where most homebrewers for the GBA and DS get their info from.

 

[TM2-Megatron]

Well, I've never heard of it other than now on that site you've linked to. It doesn't sound like quite the same as a dedicated GPU in the sense that chips like the Pica200 or whatever else are, though. Just some craptastic, dated tech that's a poor substitute for a true, dedicated GPU.

The 3DS promises to be quite impressive.

Is a PICA 200 Chip better than a NVIDIA Chip? Or is it the other way around?

That's quite a vague question.
NVIDIA = not specific
Tegra = specific

>.< whats better than a pica 200 then?

Lots of things. Why does it matter? The Pica200 appears to be more than good enough to give us excellent graphics on the 3DS.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Well, the DS's 3D hardware is not really a dedicated GPU, but it requires nothing from the CPUs other than loading into it's vertex/poly buffers as it handles the rest, which argues what most say about it being all done (processing/rendering/etc.) by the CPUs.

 

[Urian1983]

¡You are wrong!

The DS has a GPU, the Geometry Engine and the Triangle Setup, aka Rendering Engine, are outside of the main CPU, they aren't extensions of it or co-processors, they are independent processors with their own assigned memory and their Control IF that transforms and raster the polygons before they are send to the 2D video hardware. DS has a complete 3D pipeline, very primitive, but it is there, if you want to believe that all the graphics from the DS are controlled only by the ARM9 then you are free to believe.

The most logical thing is that the second GPU is a reduced version of the DS graphical hardware, now including the Geometry Engine and the Rendering Engine completely embedded to it.

 

[DiscostewSM]

People who say the DS does 3D processing and rendering via the CPUs obviously has never looked into DS programming before.

 

[Deathmore]

People who say the DS does 3D processing and rendering via the CPUs obviously has never looked into DS programming before.

I don't know what that means but with 3D it takes very little extra processing. All that's beeing done is just having another angle. The GPU and CPU have already loaded the polygons, theres no need to double render polygons.

 

[lolet]

People who say the DS does 3D processing and rendering via the CPUs obviously has never looked into DS programming before.

I don't know what that means but with 3D it takes very little extra processing. All that's beeing done is just having another angle. The GPU and CPU have already loaded the polygons, theres no need to double render polygons.

I'm pretty sure he isn't talking about the 3DS stereoscopic 3D but how the DS does 3D. Not too sure about the stereoscopic 3D not taking much extra processing. After all, it has to render twice as many pixels.

 

[Painguy]

this would make sense considering that 3D has a huge impact on FPS (not 50%, but still large amount). Im still wondering how much 1 PICA costs though. Obviously its not that expensive if it actually does have 2.