Hardware Disassembling Nintendo 3DS

[Celice]

Anyone else think this has a connection with the 3DS Smuggled out of that factory?

It's likely a number were smuggled out, just those who snagged one aren't interested in talking about it online.

Only a select bit of information is offered online, and like an iceberg, you can't know everything when all you see is part of the whole.

EDIT: And this talk about the analog stick being similar... you might as well say buttons are similar too, since they're essentially all the same--plastic you push down. That kind of stick is just efficient, in the eyes of Nintendo, for the system's size and use.

 

[dudereno]

I love the Zelda Music , when can find it

That's from the Zelda Medley, that the Nintendo band performed at the Nintendo World 2011 event in Japan.

Zelda power mp3 link

megaupload mirror

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

The chips are epoxyed, so direct removal isn't an option without destroying the board. I guess the hackers are going to have to get epoxy solvent to do any probing.

Too bad they didn't make the 3DS slot like the SD slot, a seperate board so it could be easily replaced when worn out.

Having the battery only slightly bigger than a DSL battery kinda makes the thing not so portable anymore.

The touch screen and LCD seem to be one assembly unit instead of how the DSi and DSL is.

Looks like the buttons and Dpad PCB switchs will be hard to fix if they ever break or wear out.

 

[lostdwarf]

It's kinda in-between win and fail. Win that we have pics of the inside, fail (for me at least) that they use the same exact el-cheapo analogue stick that the PSP uses.
[/quote]

I have played the 3DS and the circle pad is 1000 times better (smoother, more responsive, more movement, and extremely more comfortable) than the psp's. The 3DS circle pad works like a real stick, small movement = small movement.
The psp stick is rigid, stiff, painfull and hard to use accurately.
The part might look similar but they are not.

 

[Ikki]

Anyone else think this has a connection with the 3DS Smuggled out of that factory?

This smug was probably inspired by the first one.

EDIT: Wait, what? You uploaded them to your facebook? What kind of taiwanese kamikaze are you?

 

[heartgold]

These lucky bastards ;l

 

[FAST6191]

The chips are epoxyed, so direct removal isn't an option without destroying the board. I guess the hackers are going to have to get epoxy solvent to do any probing.

Even ignoring removal (the trend is for in place examination these days it seems) from a reverse engineering standpoint removing epoxy/unpotting is trivial ( http://kevtris.org/Projects/votraxpss/unpot.html ).
Were any "production" hacks to use it then maybe eyebrows could be raised (a few have attempted it over the last few years) but that is a load of test points. The resolution is pretty poor but it looks like it could be a bed of nails type tester- there are a large amount of dark spots across the image and the highest number I see on the board is 248- up from the "T/CTR -" silkscreen or what might be 257 down from the buttons side of the board (I rotated the image here).

There are other interesting things on that board (not least of all that they have traces running away from the more interesting chips- not an unreasonable chance that they can be abused for hacking purposes (certainly a large number of hacks in the past have done it). Equally I doubt they can afford to respin the PCB this close to end of production.

Looking at the analogue stick I am guessing Nintendo have learned from mistakes from their past although it remains to be seen.

On the other hand even with nicely epoxy covered chips that could well be a BGA under all that- a lovely technique but one that has caused no end of hassle these last couple of years.

edit: re: ARM and who builds them- do remember ARM are something of a design licensing company not a chip fabber.

An interesting development.

 

[TheTwoR's]

Whoa whoa whoa so when you get a 3DS, and instead of switching it on to see it's beauty

, YOU DISASSEMBLE IT?

At least post a pic of it, on!!

 

[xdmario1]

Apparently, other sites have stolen the pictures with no credit whatsoever.

 

[DigitalDeviant]

Apparently, other sites have stolen the pictures with no credit whatsoever.

gbatemp splash image anyone?

 

[_Chaz_]

Apparently, other sites have stolen the pictures with no credit whatsoever.

gbatemp splash image anyone?

You mean watermark?

 

[DigitalDeviant]

Apparently, other sites have stolen the pictures with no credit whatsoever.

gbatemp splash image anyone?

You mean watermark?

yes I meant watermark.

 

[Stevetry]

wtf how is this possible MORE INFO

 

[_Chaz_]

wtf how is this possible MORE INFO

Knowing Nintendo, it probably requires a tri-wing.

 

[CannonFoddr]

wtf how is this possible MORE INFO

Knowing Nintendo, it probably requires a tri-wing.

Nah - those are too common now-adays. Bet they come up with something different like a 'star'

Spoiler: maybe like this

 

[ManFranceGermany]

is the left one the PICA200?
Would love to know, if u can get some hints on it, how much power it has...but res. is not very high...and the right one is the ARM...well...could someone see if its really a dual one? =)

 

[DigitalDeviant]

is the left one the PICA200?
Would love to know, if u can get some hints on it, how much power it has...but res. is not very high...and the right one is the ARM...well...could someone see if its really a dual one? =)

No way to tell right now.

 

[Mantis41]

Hijacked this from another forum. Not sure if its true or not

A9 arm is Cortex-A9 processor. I think.

Added after 2 minutes:

Cortex-A9 Processor - ARM

The processor is clocked frm 800 mhz to 2000 mhz

So if it is true 3ds´s specifications will be much higher than the old ones.

 

[ManFranceGermany]

Hijacked this from another thread. Not sure if its true or not

A9 arm is Cortex-A9 processor. I think.

Added after 2 minutes:

Cortex-A9 Processor - ARM

The processor is clocked frm 800 mhz to 2000 mhz

So if it is true 3ds´s specifications will be much higher than the old ones.

if you type CTR on arm.com u get cortex results, thats true

 

[Eerpow]

Hmm, there's a chip with TOSHIBA printed on it and that must mean that toshiba are making the 3D screens since they already have glasses free monitors.