Hacking WTH: SLC NAND, NAND Saving, AP?

[3DSGuy]

It is just a partition flag that sets it as RO. Other than that the entire NAND is RW with partition tools.

Other than they are based on MXIC's ROM chips series I know nothing more of how they implemented RO/RW hybrid chip for CARD2 game cards.

 

[Duo8]

Other than they are based on MXIC's ROM chips series I know nothing more of how they implemented RO/RW hybrid chip for CARD2 game cards.

Wouldn't it be too expensive to make a portion strictly RO? As in, nothing can write to it because it's ROM?

 

[3DSGuy]

Wouldn't it be too expensive to make a portion strictly RO? As in, nothing can write to it because it's ROM?

I don't know.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

Macronix makes the MX23 series a custom for nintendo.

The RO is a HW Write protect feature of the MX chip itself, not anything nintendo wrote in the code. Or more specifically a sector protect, aka the "card 2" reference.

Spoiler

Link to pdf: here

The MX23 falls under a ROM chip specs but it is a custom SLC NAND with the HW Write protect on the first partition.

MX23 series

The MX30 is the SLC NAND specs.

MX30 series


The 16384 Mbit size isn't listed as available, so getting a specific pinout of the read and write isn't available.

 

[minexew]

You probably want a source for my information because it is "Just Speculation™", well I can't give you a source because it's the CTR_SDK, so you'll just have to take my word for it. I'm not going to leak parts of the SDK just to make skeptical people happy, this is how it is, deal with it.

And I don't suppose you're exactly going to share with us how you got your hands on it in the first place?

Macronix makes the MX23 series a custom for nintendo.

The RO is a HW Write protect feature of the MX chip itself, not anything nintendo wrote in the code. Or more specifically a sector protect, aka the "card 2" reference.

...

Oh well, quite the bitch slap for robo989. Was about time that somebody put him in his place.

 

[Armadillo]

So card2, any speculation on how Gateway will go around it (if they can). With the emunand they are redirecting system nand to sd. So is it possible to do same with saves? Intercept the save commands and redirect to sd card instead?

Or as there are currently only 2 games, is the solution more likely, emunand, then play original cart.

 

[how_do_i_do_that]

It is just a matter of how they implement that through the FPGA on the red cart, assuming it can be updated to handle that. If not, it would take some code to be added to the launcher to handle the data locations.

 

[3DSGuy]

So card2, any speculation on how Gateway will go around it (if they can). With the emunand they are redirecting system nand to sd. So is it possible to do same with saves? Intercept the save commands and redirect to sd card instead?

Or as there are currently only 2 games, is the solution more likely, emunand, then play original cart.

My guess is that they microchip handling the commands translating ROM access to the MicroSD card never expected to get write commands. I imagine you'd be able to update the cart's FW via the GW launcher. GW Mode currently write the save to the EEPROM when launching a game, and dump the EEPROM when closing a game, GW mode will need more checks to know to instead write to and dump from the "writable region" when dealing with CARD2 devices. However Pokemon X/Y is also built with SDK 5.x, since the promised to have that working, they need to find a work around for the logo. Since they got emuNAND working, I suspect running a patched version of the latest FW is GW's answer to any firmware incompatibilities caused by being stuck on FW 4.5.0-X.

 

[jrr6415sun]

thank you for the information. It was very easy to read.

Does the moved logo mean that gateway won't be able to play all new games? Is there a possibility of gateway being able to fix this problem easily or will it require a lot of time or possibly not be able to be fixed at all?

 

[Duo8]

thank you for the information. It was very easy to read.

Does the moved logo mean that gateway won't be able to play all new games? Is there a possibility of gateway being able to fix this problem easily or will it require a lot of time or possibly not be able to be fixed at all?

They used EmuNAND to fix it

 

[BORODA]

They used EmuNAND to fix it

Never mind. I rewatched the gateway video.

#Delete this post please

 

[KefkasMyDad]

I'm a stupid jackass

i dont see how that's relevant

 

[Jiro2]

I am confused.

games like AC:NL which use a SLC-NAND in-place of a regular CARD2 hybrid chip.

AC:NL can't be played on GW. AC:NL crashes shortly after it attempts to load savedata. Gateway3DS apparently fails at emulating the RW region of CARD2 chips

The first quote seems to say that Animal Crossing does not have a CARD2. The second quote seems to say that Gateway cannot emulate the CARD2 present in Animal Crossing. ???

Edit: Or does it mean that Animal Crossing has a CARD2, but not a "regular" CARD2?

If so, does that mean that two problems would have to be fixed for Animal Crossing to work? (CARD2 and NAND)

 

[3DSGuy]

Or does it mean that Animal Crossing has a CARD2, but not a "regular" CARD2?

If so, does that mean that two problems would have to be fixed for Animal Crossing to work? (CARD2 and NAND)

The SLC-NAND used in AC:NL would have been designed to behave like a regular CARD2 chip from the 3DS' perspective, except having faster read/write speeds.

 

[phanteon]

i still dont understand many things but i fing this really interesting.

my question is: do you think that the current GW cartridge is technically capable of running all the existing cards?

 

[Duo8]

i still dont understand many things but i fing this really interesting.

my question is: do you think that the current GW cartridge is technically capable of running all the existing cards?

It should be. If GW Team weren't lazy.

 

[profi200]

What Gateway simply do, is loading a patched firmware. So the only thing they need to do is patching 6.3 to work with their card and all games, which need a new SDK version should run fine. The CARD2 games are more complicated and the red Gateway card needs a FPGA update. Patching the firmware for that is to much work and possible can destroy other things.