NES mini tear down. Cpu is Arm based

[goodtofufriday]

Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/11/nes-mini-teardowns-have-begun-chips-identified/

Quote

The first major image of the NES Mini's motherboard hit the Internet thanks to Gamespot Senior Reviews Editor Peter Brown. His shots were shared and scrutinized by members of Reddit's Nintendo community. Code numbers on chips led those users to determine that the system (which emulates NES games and displays them on 1080p displays) is primarily fueled by an AllWinner R16 "system-on-chip" solution.

If the chip works as advertised by Chinese manufacturer AllWinner, as opposed to being customized for the NES Mini in any way, then it includes a dual-core Mali-400 GPU which could be powerful enough to pump out as many as 55 million triangles per second (in its 28nm, 500MHz variant). There's also a quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 CPU, which has been clocked at 1.2GHz in smartphones, as well as 256MB of DDR3 RAM and 512MB of NAND flash storage.

 

Replacing a smd flash chip is easy peasy. Making it replaceable is also easy (or placing a larger chip). Since the cpu is arm based the OS Nintendo made is likely Linux at its core. And the Allwinner r16 has a usb otg controller built into it as well. i think we will see custom game list relatively soon IMO. 

[shdowhunt60]

This also means it's more powerful than the 3DS, lol.

[elkenrod]

Brilliant move by Nintendo.  They will sell more of these this Holiday than they did WiiU's last year.

[Katsunaka]

I'm buying one. Mainly so I don't have to dig in my moms attic for my old regular NES. 

 

Plus the nostalgia is strong with it, 30  games, 1 controller and a mini nes for 60? Throw in another controller for 10 and boom, instant 2P action.

[Sauron]

12 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

This also means it's more powerful than the 3DS, lol.

The 3ds is 5 years old.

[shdowhunt60]

Which is why it amazes me that they release a "New" 3DS that's only a bit more powerful for all intents and purposes.

[Zodiark1593]

Just now, shdowhunt60 said:

Which is why it amazes me that they release a "New" 3DS that's only a bit more powerful for all intents and purposes.

I wasn't aware a mid-console refresh requires radically different internal hardware.

 

The New 3DS is fine as it fixes many of the original's flaws. That was it's goal. The additional performance was to alleviate CPU bottlenecking, which can be seen and duplicated in even games like Zelda; OoT.

[Mooshi]

I owned an NES as my first console and although having one of this would be awesome, it's a disappointment. If it had access to Nintendo's eShop to add more games and expandable storage, it would have been x100000 better. 

[shdowhunt60]

1 hour ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I wasn't aware a mid-console refresh requires radically different internal hardware.

 

The New 3DS is fine as it fixes many of the original's flaws. That was it's goal. The additional performance was to alleviate CPU bottlenecking, which can be seen and duplicated in even games like Zelda; OoT.

Mid console? The 3DS has been out for almost 5 years at that point. If there's ever a time to replace the thing, it was then. And we have seen mid-console refreshes bring major revisions to the hardware, look at the billion different models of Gameboy up until the Gameboy Advance.

[Centurius]

5 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

Mid console? The 3DS has been out for almost 5 years at that point. If there's ever a time to replace the thing, it was then. And we have seen mid-console refreshes bring major revisions to the hardware, look at the billion different models of Gameboy up until the Gameboy Advance.

That would be 3 years, 2 for the XL.

[suicidalfranco]

so what's the difference between this and retroPi?

[Technous285]

1 hour ago, suicidalfranco said:

so what's the difference between this and retroPi?

This one is just Plug-n-Play for those who want to play old NES games but don't have the time, patience or access to the gear to make a RetroPi. That and it's legal and official, no messing around with the grey area of ROM Dumps and emulators/VM's of the old system.

[Delicieuxz]

The NES mini still takes cartridges though, right? And is there still slow-down and flickering on the NES mini?

[Nowak]

7 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

The NES mini still takes cartridges though, right? And is there still slow-down and flickering on the NES mini?

No cartridges. Everything is digitally stored on the console.

 

Due to the way how it's set up, what's on the console is what you get. Although, knowing the modding community that might change.

[shdowhunt60]

Yeah, I can see homebrew being made for this thing. It's just... All it is, is a NES emulation box. Why not give it... I don't know, support for other Nintendo consoles?

[Delicieuxz]

2 hours ago, Daring said:

No cartridges. Everything is digitally stored on the console.

 

Due to the way how it's set up, what's on the console is what you get. Although, knowing the modding community that might change.

Well that sucks. I don't really see the purpose of it without actual cartridge support. I still have some cartridges, too, and it would've been great for the value of vintage NES games.

[Nowak]

5 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

Well that sucks. I don't really see the purpose of it without actual cartridge support. I still have some cartridges, too, and it would've been great for the value of vintage NES games.

It's too tiny for cartridges, so...

 

I know how you feel, though. I have some NES carts left over from my NES (and the NES before that, and the NES before the NES before that one), and being able to play them on my fancy, modern LCD TV would be nice. The game selection on the NES Mini isn't even that great, missing some great titles like Contra, Castlevania III and Ikari Warriors, and being limited to only 30 games out of 713.

[goodtofufriday]

11 hours ago, Daring said:

No cartridges. Everything is digitally stored on the console.

 

Due to the way how it's set up, what's on the console is what you get. Although, knowing the modding community that might change.

As a part of that community, we are already on it. 

[malon]

As someone who never had a nes this is just fine for me, especialy since it is only 60 dollars/euro and it would be just plug and play with 30 games and a controller, would be sweet if there was an optin to add more games but i'm not going to complain formthat price