Super Card 2 GB memory limit - why?

[sno]

Wondering about why it has always been 2GB. Is this just a limitation due to hardware or its use of FAT fs? Just wondering if there's a work around available to use larger cards. Also what about the rom size limit? how is that currently understood? In my mind I don't know why it cannot just keep reading from card.

 

[RAHelllord]

I'm unfamiliar with the SuperCard specifically but in general those limits have existed in older systems because the hardware can't physically address space beyond that limit, most often because it's baked into the controller or firmware.
In the case of replaceable storage medium like that there's also the problem that 2GB was the biggest possible size for standard SD cards, SDHC had to change a bunch things internally to support sizes from 2gb to 32GB, and the changes were more substantial than they were from SDHC to SDXC, so backporting support is a lot harder, if not outright impossible.

 

[Nikokaro]

Wondering about why it has always been 2GB.

Simply because its hardware and software are identical to those of ten or more years ago, except for the change in the slot, now suitable for micro SD format.

 

[metroid maniac]

As far as I can tell it's a software limitation. I don't have much experience with this sort of thing, but by reading the DLDI driver it looks like SD card communication is bitbanged. DS flashcarts like the original R4 do it in hardware so they can't be fixed in this way.

 

[ghjfdtg]

Often it's a software limitation. If the firmware including the part that does SD init can be completely replaced it can be fixed.

 

[sno]

why are only people who can speculate replying to my thread...