Upgrading FlashNand on (S)NES Mini? Possible?!

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MisterMue

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Hello,

due to lack in knowledge i wonder if it would be possible to desolder this Nand Flash S34ML04G200TFI00 (sometimes its Macronix
MX30LF4G18AC) and solder new an MX60LF8G18AC from Macronix with double space for roms ?!

I think hakchi would it make possible to easily reflash the new nand?! Im not asking about soldering skills, instead my question is: Would the result work and it would doubling the space for roms?!

and put in bigger
upload_2017-10-9_17-55-30.png


upload_2017-10-9_17-58-10.png
 
If the processor supports it (and, being raw MTD flash, the kernel with usually a hardcoded choice of driver and builtin partition table is modified), there's no reason it wouldn't

Of course, there might be bugs/incompatibilities if using the official UI (for example, does it show or calculate free space using variables barely suitable for the original size?), but Linux and friends themselves should have no issue

Inb4 it's cheaper to swap the motherboard with a Pi and write a classic controller driver
 
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If the processor supports it (and, being raw MTD flash, the kernel with usually a hardcoded choice of driver and builtin partition table is modified), there's no reason it wouldn't

Of course, there might be bugs/incompatibilities if using the official UI (for example, does it show or calculate free space using variables barely suitable for the original size?), but Linux and friends themselves should have no issue

Inb4 it's cheaper to swap the motherboard with a Pi and write a classic controller driver

You mean without touching the partition table in kernel it wont make use of extra space even if you were really skillfull in soldering?
 
You mean without touching the partition table in kernel it wont make use of extra space even if you were really skillfull in soldering?
Most likely yes - raw nand (chips like this one or in GBA games, XD, smartmedia; using dedicated filesystems like jfs, yaffs2, ...) is a completely different beast to managed nand (sd, compactflash, m/sata/m2 ssd..., using standard filesystems, designed to be mostly compatible with standard internal and usb drives):

wear leveling is usually done in software only (often not shared across different partitions), different chips sometimes use different drivers , and due to not being compatible with more traditional drives (as well as having been much smaller in the past, on average) they don't have design choices otherwise taken for granted like a partition table on the device itself!

Of course, since the kernel is open source, it's a joke compared to rework at least for most people :)
 
Last edited by Ryccardo,

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