Nintendo DS specs are leaked

News March 11th 2004 Ben

Written by David_Redge

A leaked document has provided salivating details on Nintendo’s newest hardware – dubbed Nintendo DS and more recently Nintendo Nitro.

The system is built around an ARM 7 and an ARM 9 processor; ARM 7 processor running at 33 mhz (GBA’s ARM 7 runs at 16.8 mhz) and the ARM 9 running at 67 mhz.

The unit will feature four megabytes of system RAM, as well as 32K of processor RAM for both ARM 7 and ARM 9, and 656K of VRAM. Development sources state that along with aiding in Project Nitro-native games, the ARM 7 will also be used for Game Boy Advance compatibility.

Both screens will will have a resolution of 256×192 pixels (compared to GBA’s 240×160 resolution). At least one of the screens will be touch sensitive. The system’s focus is on 3D, with the ability to push as many as 120,000 polygons per second. The system’s 2D abilities are comparable to the GBA (with four scrolling backgrounds with 128 on-screen objects).

The system will feature the same button configuration as the Game Boy Advance system D-pad, A and B buttons, L and R shoulder buttons. The unit may, by launch include additional X and Y buttons. This seems undecided at present.

The Project Nitro will also feature wireless connectivity, with some sources stating that the system can link up to 16 systems.

For the technophiles among us

CPU
Main processor
ARM946E-S (67MHz)
Cache 8KB data 4KB
TCM 32KB data 16KB

Sub processor
ARM7TDMI (33MHz)

Memory
Main memory 4MB
ARM9/ARM7 32KB (2 times 16KB)
ARM7 Work RAM 64KB
VRAM 656KB

LCD
Display Two screens of 256×192 pixels (RGB)
Colours Maximum of 262,144 colors

2D graphics Engine
BG 4 layers maximum
OBJ 128 objects maximum

3D graphics Engine
Coordinate conversion maximum of 4M / second
Polygon drawing capability maximum of 120K polygon/second
Pixel drawing capability maximum of 30M pixels/second

Sound
16 channels (ADPCM/PCM) Microphone input

Input device
Touch screen / panel ‘cross’
A, B, R, L, Start, Select
(X and Y are under examination)

Wireless communication
IEEE802.11 protocol

Electric power control
Sleep mode (with ‘Wake up’ by radio signal possible).
Electric power control of the 2D engine,
rendering engine, (unknown) engine and
LCD possible.