Homebrew Why the DSi CAN play GBA back-ups.

[NinjaxFoote]

The DSi can play GBA back-ups. The 16MB RAM is more than enough as far as that goes.
But the main thing is, even though loosing GBA support, the DSi did NOT drop the ARM7TDMI processor, which is the same processor used in the GBA.
True, the GBA had a co processor, the Zilog Z80. It is only an 8-bit processor. The DSi's main is the ARM9TDMI, another 32-bit processor. Now, one could hack the DSi, and add in GBA compatability, using the ARM7 as the main processor, and the ARM9 to replace the lower, 8-bit processor.
This is highly possible, but would be highly difficult to do as well.
Viva la' ADVANCE!

Edit:
As well, the DSi has 256MB internal flash memory, which can be used in virtually the same way as page file memory.
For larger games, cutting down a lil' on the sound quality and running it at a lower resolution with minimum distortion would make the frame rate nearly perfect.
Remember, no type of emulation is perfect, but possibilities are endless.

 

[evandixon]

The DSi can play GBA back-ups. The 16MB RAM is more than enough as far as that goes.
But the main thing is, even though loosing GBA support, the DSi did NOT drop the ARM7TDMI processor, which is the same processor used in the GBA.
True, the GBA had a co processor, the Zilog Z80. It is only an 8-bit processor. The DSi's main is the ARM9TDMI, another 32-bit processor. Now, one could hack the DSi, and add in GBA compatability, using the ARM7 as the main processor, and the ARM9 to replace the lower, 8-bit processor.
This is highly possible, but would be highly difficult to do as well.
Viva la' ADVANCE!

And someone could take the time to run GBA Roms from the Slot 1.

What you are proposing will take up ALL of the RAM of the DSi, so there would not be enough left to properly run it, and not enough to save.
Plus, DSi Mode hasn't even been fully hacked yet.

 

[Beige]

The DSi can play GBA back-ups. The 16MB RAM is more than enough as far as that goes.
But the main thing is, even though loosing GBA support, the DSi did NOT drop the ARM7TDMI processor, which is the same processor used in the GBA.
True, the GBA had a co processor, the Zilog Z80. It is only an 8-bit processor. The DSi's main is the ARM9TDMI, another 32-bit processor. Now, one could hack the DSi, and add in GBA compatability, using the ARM7 as the main processor, and the ARM9 to replace the lower, 8-bit processor.
This is highly possible, but would be highly difficult to do as well.
Viva la' ADVANCE!

Edit:
As well, the DSi has 256MB internal flash memory, which can be used in virtually the same way as page file memory.
For larger games, cutting down a lil' on the sound quality and running it at a lower resolution with minimum distortion would make the frame rate nearly perfect.
Remember, no type of emulation is perfect, but possibilities are endless.

So, what happens when we try to run games bigger than 8MB? Remember: the whole RAM can't be used for the ROM, we need room for the proposed emulator. Also, last I checked, not all of the flash was available to the user. Actually, one half is reserved for system use (firmware, patches, photos, blah blah blah) leaving 128MB. The other 128MB is for DSiWare and whatnot, but using it would require the 'common key,' which we don't have. Also, this would require DSi mode, which we just recently acquired, but is still in very early stages. We don't even have SD access yet!

Anyways, this is pretty far fetched. The PSP has a very good GBA emulator now, but it wasn't always that way. Despite the amount of knowledge we have of the GBA and it's inner workings, it's still a 32-bit console and does require a lot of work to even get started on emulation, let alone get anywhere playable.

Also, before you may say "But we have ARM7!" Remember, we still would need to emulate the GBA slot to get the code to the ARM7. Plus, we would have to find a way to get the ARM7 to work independently to be able to handle said instructions. Even worse, if we get ARM7 into the mode that allows independent usage, we would lose ARM9, as ARM9 is very independent on ARM7 when it comes to DS-related operations.

In other words, this is a project that is much more complicated than people believe it to be and it will be a good, long time before we can even get close to any form of it being reality.

 

[MissingNo._]

HOORAY! Does this mean I can play GBA games on my DSi?

Er...

















Obviously not.

 

[Da-Bomb1]

My god, there's already a thread about this, on this page. Please, everybody just shut up about this "GBA on DSi" thing...

 

[clegion]

please please wait until it's proven and somebody made it compatible with most roms, otherwise don't keep sating this

 

[bRKcRE]

there should be a rule that means people get banned for posting junk like GBA-on-DSi liek this all over the forum...