Hacking 3dslink just released a firmware

[VMM]

Well i don't know much about PCB but as far as i can see the GW have more components and that can mean there's more features hardware wise to the card than we know about. If the gold r4i have all that it needs in one side what do they cut out?? Less or smaller doesn't always mean better.

Not really, the big difference is the location of the Actel chip.
Both PCBs are really similar, the big difference is,
in gateway it is on one side of the PCB, and everything else is on the other side.
On R4i Gold Deluxe it's together with everything else.
I wouldn't be surprised if Gateway, in the next hardware revision, do something similar to what R4i Gold Team have done.

 

[vini9157]

gateway fanboys damage controling this thread

 

[lambstone]

Just an empirical observation based on the PCB pictures of GW and 3dslink.

The actel chip is A3P125 whereas the actel chip on 3dslink is A3P250. Perhaps on the 3dslink they might be using an updated Actel chip? Generally with chip revisions there is either increased performance or power efficiency.

 

[Rinth]

The files can't be hosted on or linked to from here... That's far from trouble for the GW team.

Really, your posts indicate you are either a troll or one of the guys working for the 3DS Link team...

_V1qy has been trolling about the greatness of 3DS Link since it launched. He's probably one of the R4 guys who's been with the forum for awhile. If you are going to advertise, at least do it honestly.

 

[Thunder Hawk]

Just an empirical observation based on the PCB pictures of GW and 3dslink.

The actel chip is A3P125 whereas the actel chip on 3dslink is A3P250. Perhaps on the 3dslink they might be using an updated Actel chip? Generally with chip revisions there is either increased performance or power efficiency.

I don't have a clue on how a topic about frimware turned into a PCB discussion, but I have a nice picture to help. Can we confirm the authenticity of the chips?

Spoiler

Source: http://www.digchip.com/datasheets/parts/datasheet/006/A3P125.php

 

[lambstone]

I don't have a clue on how a topic about frimware turned into a PCB discussion, but I have a nice picture to help. Can we confirm the authenticity of the chips?

Spoiler

Source: http://www.digchip.com/datasheets/parts/datasheet/006/A3P125.php

Haha, people were discussing whether or not 3dslink was a ripoff of GW and then build quality and PCB was brought into this discussion.

Anyway, Seems like the A3P250 has twice the system gates, more D-FlipFlops, twice the I/O banks and greater User I/O. I believe that the A3P250 is faster than the A3P125 and I am basing this as the 250 seems to be better than the 125 with its technical specifications. Hopefully this should translate to better performance.

 

[Parasite X]

Just an empirical observation based on the PCB pictures of GW and 3dslink.

The actel chip is A3P125 whereas the actel chip on 3dslink is A3P250. Perhaps on the 3dslink they might be using an updated Actel chip? Generally with chip revisions there is either increased performance or power efficiency.

Its a clone bro a knockoff clone can't beat the original

 

[lambstone]

Its a clone bro a knockoff clone can't beat the original

I based my opinions on the currently available empirical evidence whereas you base your arguments on nothing at all instead falling back to the meaningless "it's a clone, it's crap" retort.

I suppose tap water can't beat bottle Evian water as well.

 

[ginryu]

I based my opinions on the currently available empirical evidence whereas you base your arguments on nothing at all instead falling back to the meaningless "it's a clone, it's crap" retort.

I suppose tap water can't beat bottle Evian water as well.

Well if it uses a nand chip i will take my hat but if it is a rom chip it will mean that you will need a new hardware revision down the road so no good

 

[lambstone]

Well if it uses a nand chip i will take my hat but if it is a rom chip it will mean that you will need a new hardware revision down the road so no good

Yeah, I was just judging that the 3dslink seems to use a newer/better? Actel Chip as compared to gateway.

Not sure if it is using a Nand chip but it most likely would be. It doesn't make sense for them to charger such a high price if they were using a Rom chip. Then again, time will tell.

 

[ginryu]

Yeah, I was just judging that the 3dslink seems to use a newer/better? Actel Chip as compared to gateway.

Not sure if it is using a Nand chip but it most likely would be. It doesn't make sense for them to charger such a high price if they were using a Rom chip. Then again, time will tell.

Yeah you are right, then again i see at least one extra chip on the GW and it could mean a big difference.

 

[lambstone]

Yeah you are right, then again i see at least one extra chip on the GW and it could mean a big difference.

Could be the case. We'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Rinth]

I don't think the Actel Chip is going to matter. It's like storing a 2MB file on an 8MB drive instead of a 4MB drive - both will do the job perfectly fine. It's all down to the features (hack more) and the reliability (test more) of the firmwares. Thus far Gateway has been doing more testing than all the R4 cards throughout history combined, since R4 (same entity as 3DS Link, confirmed by check sums of their launcher.dat) is known to rush firmwares.

 

[kyogre123]

I don't think the Actel Chip is going to matter. It's like storing a 2MB file on an 8MB drive instead of a 4MB drive - both will do the job perfectly fine. It's all down to the features (hack more) and the reliability (test more) of the firmwares. Thus far Gateway has been doing more testing than all the R4 cards throughout history combined, since R4 (same entity as 3DS Link, confirmed by check sums of their launcher.dat) is known to rush firmwares.

Maybe they had both firmwares before doing all this stuff. I've been saying that maybe their "updates" are just marketing, and by this I mean that they already had the firmware spoofing and region unlock already supported. I also believe that they were expecting Gateway to release their 2.0 firmware on this week, but since it got delayed due to the clones, they had this plan of releasing this "update" as a second resource. Of course, this is merely speculation on my part.

 

[Rinth]

I know that some people should have already received the 3DS Link card/R4 card, since there have been reviews. However, nobody thus far has claimed that region spoofing from the new update is functional. This is somewhat eerie.

 

[tHciNc]

It should be, as they are copying gateways work, more than likely just like with ps3 piracy dongles, clone updates always came after the original team released theirs....

 

[Quicksilver88]

"This cards going to win" "that cards going to win"
win what what? the fictitious flashcard wars fourm posters created?

gateway was never expected to be the only 3ds flashcard on the market.
personally I'm happy to see that there's a push for other companies to jump in the game, even if they're clone carts.
More carts translate to more interest in Pirating games on the 3DS. More people higher skills will join the fun.

a small team of developers like gateway can't do it alone. especially in a short time-frame people are expecting. Higher volume of coders working on this project will yield better results.

It's much to the same fact as any Cracking, Hacking, Emulating scene From Iphons & Androids, to software cracking.
Popularity in a project plays a major role. If one team looses interest, there will be others to pickup where they left off.

I fully agree with your statement. Gateway, so far has been a great product....I got one as soon as they hit NA distributors and have already been very pleased with it, they are a dedicated team and given the nature of scene 'misinformation' I think that Gateway has been an extremely straight shooting company about what they could offer, what they are working on, and what they expect to deliver....additionally they have been very responsive to customer inquires both directly and thru statements/videos.....I mean I really like that and expect them to continue to deliver.

The clones are great as yes it will drive more competition and hopefully r4 gold or whoever is cloning can put some manpower behind it and help drive innovations. I mean if Gateway dried up tomorrow and the next card company in line did something 'big' I would buy their product....duh....I mean my lord I have 4 differnt DS slot 1 cards, 2 slot 2 cards that work with DS/GBA and then numerous older gba and gb slot 2 cards...Flash cards are fun people and allow us access and trial of many games most of us would never even touch or play without flashcards and roms.

So in the infamous words of SW second trilogy 'Let the Clone Wars Begin'.......

 

[WiiUBricker]

Not sure why some people seem to be mad about this. The DS started with one flashcart (not sure which one) which got cloned and cloned again and cloned again [...] and cloned again, but I don't recall people bitching about DS flashcart clones. Personally I would select a gateway but simply because their english is not broken. That shows that they have at least one non-chinese native in their team and that they are serious about their product. Kinda reminds me of the late Cyclops team.

 

[Quicksilver88]

Not sure why some people seem to be mad about this. The DS started with one flashcart (not sure which one) which got cloned and cloned again and cloned again [...] and cloned again, but I don't recall people bitching about DS flashcart clones. Personally I would select a gateway but simply because their english is not broken. That shows that they have at least one non-chinese native in their team and that they are serious about their product. Kinda reminds me of the late Cyclops team.

Well actually the DS went thru two stages the Modified slot 2 cards and then the slot 1 cards......I still love the original supercard SD because I bought it for use late in the GBA life before DS even released and it was a great GBA card with RTS, Text file insert and a good PC program for save and cheat patching. Then out of the blue they got DS working on it and then supported it thru 2010 to run almost all DS games on it. As a consumer how often does something like that happen where you buy a card for one device and end up getting years of use out of it on the next gen device.....hats off to SuperCard and I for one hope they jump in the 3DS game. I would really like to see a 'dual' card that has both 3DS/DS on one card that I would buy but until that happens I am a happy Gateway owner and look forward to getting Gateway v2.0 with emunand and multi-rom in the near future.....

 

[enarky]

I based my opinions on the currently available empirical evidence whereas you base your arguments on nothing at all instead falling back to the meaningless "it's a clone, it's crap" retort.

I suppose tap water can't beat bottle Evian water as well.

As someone with more than 15 years of experience in the flash card/backup unit business: it's a clone, it's crap. Period. That's how it has been since the dawn of the copiers/flash cards, especially that early in the game. Later clones might surpass what's available now, but the Gateway team has a couple of months head start, as long as they are around (and they pay their programmer/hacker well) the others will very likely just copy what they push out.