Inside the Nintendo DSi

While I was on the Yamanote line last week, I saw an advertisement for the Japanese launch of the Nintendo DSi (Nintendo site / Wikipedia site). The DSi just went for sale on November 1st in Japan only, and it looks like the North American launch for the product is still up in the air (looks like sometime fall next year).

Needless to say, I couldn’t help myself from buying one of these…and taking it apart. The DSi is pretty cool: it has not one, but two, cameras embedded in it. One faces forward so you can see yourself, and the other can be used to take pictures of others. Compared to the DS-lite, it’s a little bit thinner, isn’t compatible with the old charger, and more prominently features wifi connectivity status. The speakers are also a bit beefier. Finally, the feature I like the most is that the screens are a good bit larger than the previous model (I’m already enjoying Tetris on the bigger screen). Oh, and also, it has an SD card slot, so you can play AAC encoded audio from the memory card, as well as store pictures on there, so the device effectively doubles as a camera and a music player on the road.

I haven’t had much of a chance to play around with the device yet, but from what I can tell the CPU is substantially beefed up (consistent with reports of the DSi battery life being shorter than the DS-lite, despite having similar battery capacities of 840 mAh for the DSi and 850 mAh for the DS-lite), as it can do all kinds of real-time image manipulation tricks on the video feeds, and it also has a built-in minigame for audio streams where you can loop in samples over music files and do some low-quality pitch distortion on the fly. The markings on the CPU package yield no clues about its performance, but my guess is that any ARM9 or ARM11 CPU manufactured in 2007 would have a performance around the 266-533 MHz range. Of course, I took the device apart, and I have some photos of it to share with you from my hotel room…

DSi mainscreen after power-on — definitely playing up the built-in camera features

Mainboard top photo

Mainboard backside photo — love the detailed, plain-English “hack here please” silkscreen annotation

Photo of the CPU region (RF shield lifted)

Backplate photo

Battery pack photo

Didn’t get a chance to take apart the top screen portion of the unit (I’m guessing it’s not very interesting). Looking forward to the homebrew scene on the DSi — I think it looks like a really capable platform and could have some very exciting applications, especially with Linux on it.

91 Responses to “Inside the Nintendo DSi”

  1. […] [bunnie] managed to pick up a Nintendo DSi while in Japan. It seems he had the device running less than an hour before he tore it down for an impromptu hotel photoshoot. There’s nothing too surprising and he mentions that the CPU certainly feels more capable than the previous model, which may explain the shorter battery life. The ARM processor sits under an RF shield directly below the WiFi card. The best photo is the top side of the board with every single debug point labeled in plain English on the silkscreen. We’re sure that’ll help with the development of new homebrew hardware. […]

  2. It’s a very interesting note. I’ll check it as soon as I can.
    Thanks.

  3. nitro2k01 says:

    Thanks for the photos. I blogged this post. (I’m blogging about all and any news about the DSi)
    Do you possibly have access to equipment that can measure the frequency? (I’m curious now) I still think it’s the same old 66 MHz ARM9 :/

    Also, are you planning to do any more “Name that Ware”?

  4. bunnie says:

    If this is anything like previous Nintendo designs, they have included either an emulator for the slower CPU or just included the 66 MHz ARM core as a separate subsystem for legacy gaming compatibility. Running with the faster CPU probably requires fiddling some magic bits somewhere to enable it.

    Playing around with the image processing software some more, I’m fairly convinced they aren’t running on just a 66 MHz CPU, or if they are they have augmented the main CPU with a fairly substantial but programmable graphics processing unit.

    I might be able to do a harmonic power analysis or a radio emission screen on it to determine the frequency of the CPU — I don’t have access to that kind of equipment though right now, I’m not at my home base.

    Yes, I do Name that Ware once a month — still haven’t missed one yet, although sometimes my posts are late.

  5. frank says:

    Well this is new to me and is very interesting to have a glimpse inside the nintendo DS. Thanks for the photos.

  6. Jesse says:

    Wow, that’s a crapload of test points. I’ve tested PDAs (Aceeca Meazuras to be exact) with less than that, LCD and all.

  7. […] [bunnie] managed to pick up a Nintendo DSi while in Japan. It seems he had the device running less than an hour before he tore it down for an impromptu hotel photoshoot. There’s nothing too surprising and he mentions that the CPU certainly feels more capable than the previous model, which may explain the shorter battery life. The ARM processor sits under an RF shield directly below the WiFi card. The best photo is the top side of the board with every single debug point labeled in plain English on the silkscreen. We’re sure that’ll help with the development of new homebrew hardware. […]

  8. wiiboy101 says:

    soooo let mi get this right theres no evidence of anything you said yet ur still going on about a new cpu HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

    yet wii all know theres more ram considering you have opened a dsi

    HOW MUCH RAM IS THERE AAAARRRRRR write an artical on a logical subject

    rolls eyes

  9. homebrewed says:

    ds has 2 32 bit risc cpus dedicated sound hardware 3d engine 2x 2d gpus sram catch ram virtiual ram custom this and that

    it doesnt need a faster cpu to run these media functions just more ram and better firmware

    rollseyes

  10. […] C’est sur le blog de Bunnie, un geek japonnais que vous pourrez trouver toutes les photo de sa Nintendo DSi démontée dont voici quelques extraits. […]

  11. bushing says:

    There’s a suspicious lack of test points that mention any of the RAM or NAND flash signals, eh? Is it just me, or all of the traces from the NAND flash to the CPU buried?

    (I see very few vias under the part itself, although you could probably find those signals on some of those vias under the CPU.

  12. […] “The markings on the CPU package yield no clues about its performance, but my guess is that any ARM9 or ARM11 CPU manufactured in 2007 would have a performance around the 266-533 MHz range,” Bunnie says, adding that Linux could have a field day playing around on this system. Hackers, get going! [Bunnie’s Blog via MAKE] […]

  13. […] Vía | Kotaku | bunnie’s blog trackback ¿Recomendarías este post? Más noticias sobre: DS, Hardware Tags: Nintendo DSi […]

  14. […] Ένας μηχανικός που μελέτησε το θέμα, απεφάνθη πως αυτό οφείλεται στον αρκετά ισχυρότερο επεξεργαστή του DSi, συγκριτικά με τον προκάτοχό του. Περισσότερα εδώ. […]

  15. […] I­nsi­de t­he Ni­nt­endo­­ DSi­ [b­unnie’s b­lo­­g via M­AKE­ via Gi­zmo­­d­o­­] […]

  16. […] Inside the Nintendo DSi [bunnie’s blog via MAKE via Gizmodo] […]

  17. […] The Japan-based Bunnie:Studios blog (via Gizmodo) decided to tear down the DSi and have a look for themselves at why exactly the DSi needs so much extra juice. As it turns out, the blame rests not with the bigger, brighter screen but the DSi’s more powerful processor and accompanying speakers. […]

  18. […] The Japan-based Bunnie:Studios blog (via Gizmodo) decided to tear down the DSi and have a look for themselves at why exactly the DSi needs so much extra juice. As it turns out, the blame rests not with the bigger, brighter screen but the DSi’s more powerful processor and accompanying speakers. […]

  19. […] Kotaku – The Cause of DSi’s Reduced Battery Power Might Be… [Nintendo] November 10, 2008 by adminFiled under: Nintendo DS  Ack! DSi guts!! Here’s a look at the DSi’s innards, which might very well explain the portable’s lacking battery life. When the specs of the DSi and the DS Lite were first compared, there was a noticeable drop off in juice power: between 1 and six hours. From the teardown, it seems that the DSi’s torqued up processor and speakers get the finger pointing and not the new, larger screens. Bunnie’s blog, which did the DSi dissection, writes: "The markings on the CPU package yield no clues about its performance, but my guess is that any ARM9 or ARM11 CPU manufactured in 2007 would have a performance around the 266-533 MHz range." More nitty-gritty and gruesomely fascinating pictures in the link below. Inside the Nintendo DSi [bunnie’s blog via MAKE via Gizmodo] […]

  20. Matthew Wilson says:

    Hi. Just saw your great photos! I was in Japan on business and picked one up. I just assumed it could be changed into English without any trouble. Oooops! I was wrong of course.

    1) Is there a hack to convert the menus to English? I figured out some of the screens but cannot really figure how how to connect to the internet via wireless at home and upgrade software, etc. Any ideas?

    2) Does anyone out there have a English manual for it or an English tutorial on how to go through the settings portion?

    Any help is appreciated. Thanks again and great shots of the interior!!!

  21. Foobar says:

    Bunnie,

    is there any evidence to suggest that the CPU is actually a variant of NVIDIAs Tegra SoCs ?

    http://www.nvidia.com/page/handheld.html

  22. […] The Nintendo DSi was released in Japan on November 1st, and Bunnie (of Bunnie Studios) picked one up to take a look inside. One of the disadvantages of the DSi over its predecessors is a shortened battery life. […]

  23. […] En resumidas cuentas, la autonomía del DSi… apesta: existe una diferencia de entre una y seis horas a favor del DS Lite. Ahora bien, llegado el momento de designar un chivo expiatorio, Bunnie: Studios blog se ha encargado de la disección de la nueva consola portable de Nintendo para resumir todo el problema al… […]

  24. DSi Hands-on says:

    […] Edit: Oof, it looks like the battery life has taken a hit that’s measured in hours, though. There’s a portable caveat for you. […]

  25. […] Destripando la DSi y posible vulnerabilidad Siempre que sale al mercado un nuevo modelo de consola nos gusta ver sus interioridades, para estudiar sus cambios, mejoras o puntos dbiles. En este caso es el conocido hacker Bunnie quien ha destripado la nueva DSi de Nintendo, como podis ver en las siguientes fotos: Todava no ha podido analizarla en profundidad, pero sospecha que incluye una CPU ms potente adems del anunciado aumento de RAM, lo que explicara la disminucin de duracin de la batera. Tambin cree que puede dar mucho juego al homebrew, especialmente para DSLinux. Y hablando de homebrew, ya ha conseguido ejecutarse. Yasu, un conocido scener japons, mostr recientemente un hello world utilizando una vulnerabilidad que no ha hecho pblica todava (se especula con que sea un buffer overflow en el visor de imgenes) y ya ha dado un paso ms: ejecutar su aplicacin casera BMDS. […]

  26. […] The Japan-based Bunnie:Studios blog (via Gizmodo) decided to tear down the DSi and have a look for themselves at why exactly the DSi needs so much extra juice. As it turns out, the blame rests not with the bigger, brighter screen but the DSi’s more powerful processor and accompanying speakers. […]

  27. […] Nintendo’s DSi gets cracked wide open November 10th, 2008 | Category: Pdas / Tablet Pcs Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds […]

  28. bunnie says:

    Wow…it’s amazing to see how rumors spread on the internet. I can’t overemphasize the point that my post is entirely *speculative*; attributing the reduced battery life to a faster CPU as a fact is overstating my post by quite a bit. I wrote it in a hotel room after playing around with the device for about half an hour…and also, I really doubt that the beefier speakers actually drain the power that much, since I always play with the volume lowered and they aren’t *that* much more powerful as to account for all the battery life reduction. However, I will agree that screen size is not the major contributor to battery life reduction. The DSi’s screen is 17% bigger in area than the DSlite’s screen, so to maintain the same light flux you’d only need 17% more power (this number scales quite well at small changes like this). This does not nearly account for the changes seen in battery life. See this data from

    http://www.qj.net/Nintendo-DSi-hardware-specs-software-details-bigger-screen-shorter-batt-life-more/pg/49/aid/124571

    Battery life (** listed by screen brightness, lowest to highest)

    * DSi: 9-14 hours, 8-12, 6-9, 4-6, 3-4
    * DS Lite: 15-19 hours, 10-15, 7-11, 5-8

    As you can see, at the dimmest setting, the DSi gets 9-14 hours of battery life, but the DS lite gets 15-19 hours. That’s a difference of about 5.5 hours on average. At the second from brightest setting (which I’d say accounts for all the screen size increase), the battery life difference is reduced to about 1.5 hours. This indicates that while the screen is a major overall consumer of power, the majority of the battery life reduction cannot be attributed to screen size increase alone. If it were the case that the screen size increase drove power consumption, you’d see a much smaller spread in battery life differential when the screen is at its dimmest setting. So something other than the screen is eating power; a beefier CPU is a nice guess, but I can’t over-emphasize that it is, nonetheless, entirely a guess.

  29. […] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your ownsite. […]

  30. Joe Bleau says:

    CPU is the obvious choice for the reduction in battery life, but what about the WiFi chipset–maybe it’s more powerful (or the antenna isn’t as good) and sucks the battery down quicker?

    I think it’s funny so many of the track backs have you as a Japan based blog!

  31. […] Nintendo DSi and Augmented Reality It seems Nintendo DSi could be a good platform for AR. It already include video-processing AR-like tools, which have color or texture segmentation and some feature detection, though feature detection doesn’t seem especially stable, as could be seen on this video. Most interesting thing though is DSi new CPU. bunniestudios.com report: “I can tell the CPU is substantially beefed up (consistent with reports of the DSi battery life being shorter than the DS-lite, despite having similar battery capacities…)” If DSi really have around 300Mhz CPU you can expect about the same performance as Nokia N95 for image registration. So my AR demos would have little quality loss for DSi comparing with N95. Lack of 3d accelerator for DSi would hurt of cause. […]

  32. Thank you very much for the pretty detailed photos of the DSi internals.

    It has an interesting design, with memory chips with integrated controllers to simplify the ARM CPU.

    I have put a little first analysis of the photos in insidetronics.blogspot.com

    It seems to be a lot delayed in the rest of the world. It is an opportunity to hack it, translate the menus, buy in Japan and sell through ebay in the rest of the world. I could do the spanish version…

  33. michad says:

    wowwwwww the dsi is cool i cant wait for it to come out in the USA im 10 but i love video games

  34. WIIBOY101 says:

    lack od 3d accelerator would hurt cough hmmmmmmcough hmmmmmmm

    dsi like ds ds lite has 3d accelerator

    ds dslite dsi there specs include 2x 2d gpus and a 3d engine there isnt just a per of arm cpus theres a lot more than that

    2x gba 2d gpus BEEFED UP

    1X 3D ENGINE

    SOUND HARDWARE EMBEDDED INTO ARM 7

    WERE DO U PEOPLE GET YOUR BRAINS

  35. […] wide open Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 2:10 This news item was posted in Products category and has 0 Comments so far. Filed under: Gaming,Handhelds […]

  36. 10 year old who wants an ENGLISH dsi but can wait until next summer says:

    PLEASE RESPOND USING EMAIL
    is there a completely english dsi currently now that i can buy online or a way to make it completely english

  37. Moonsky says:

    I bought the DSi in Tokyo 2 weeks ago and now i need some translation on how to setup the wifi. Does anybody knows how to? I need step by step instruction Please…

  38. karim m says:

    can super cards work on dsi

  39. karim m says:

    ????

  40. DannyDayS says:

    Is there a way I can buy Manuel / instructions in English for my sons DSi?
    Please advisie pennypro@sys.nl ° Thank You.

  41. John VOls says:

    Very interesting man! I never knew whats inside my Nintendo DSI hehe. Thanks for the post.

    John

    http://www.romplay.com

  42. wiiboy101uk says:

    its confirmed OR KINDA by homebrewers dsi has 2x clockspeed of ds and 4x the ram

    100mhz total clock now 200 mhz combining the 2 cpus clocks and 4mb ram now 16mb ram NINTENDO allready confirmed chip set and ram are more efficient……..dsi looks like a ds 2.5 in performance psp/iphone level graphics are possible

  43. Josh says:

    I would like to understand more about how this works, this computer hardware in general, but it is really complicated…

    Software’s more my focus, but I really do like getting an inside look at systems like this, so thanks, bunnie.

    @wiiboy101uk (right above me), don’t kid yourself. There’s no way the DSi can get anywhere near the PSP’s performance, even though the DSi may actually be faster than the DS/Lite.

  44. […] Increased price is a given, although it’ll probably come down within two years just like the other iterations of the DS. Decreased battery life is also a given, when you factor in the slightly larger screen and faster processor. The internal storage and SD card slot are HUGE steps forward for Nintendo, and the world of homebrew everywhere. Initially, there were no Flashcarts that worked with the DSi. Now, the Acekard 2i has been released to nullify that qualm.  The cameras do seem somewhat gimmicky, but then again what doesn’t until a good example of what’s possible is shown? The Wii controller, for instance. When we heard the words “Motion Control”, most of us were skeptical. Once we saw game demos, however, we saw how amazingly awesome it could be. […]

  45. I expect the demand for this product to be very very high….online stores have already place a limit on the number of DSi’s that can be ordered per household.

  46. Nintendo DSI says:

    I wouldn’t have dared open a brand new gadget like that, no doubt i would’ve ruined it!

  47. Nintendo DSi says:

    Although I really dig electronics, I think I would be too nervous I would bust something. Think I will rather leave this to the experts.

  48. Anyone else think demand for the DSI could be as great as that for the WII?

  49. icantwait4/5/09 says:

    As a response to nintendo-dsi-preorder’s question, yes.

    You can reserve it on Amazon.com and get it by April 8th in North America!

    I can’t wait!

  50. wiiboy101 says:

    im kidding my self dsi is 2x clock speed WHOLE SYSTEM NOT MAIN CPU and 4x ram again 2x clockspeed

    nintendo confirms more efficient…..

    thats easy psp STOP THE FANBOYING and with noooooo LOADING TIMES vs psps COUGH COUGH LOADING

    considering ds has very very pritty games and ds can cheat with 3d and not rely on polygons

    and dsi ram is vastly more efficent than psps due to noooo waiting or loading

    data streams in real time from cart to ram IMPOSABLE ON PSP

    metriod hunters near psp visuals at 60 frames a second NO LOADING TIMES AND TRUE FPS CONTROLS = DS

    NOW IMAGINE DSI

    133mhz main cpu 66mhz second cpu 2x 2d graphics chips and 1x 3d graphics engine

    DSi only carts confirmed

    psp fanboy SHUT IT

  51. wiiboy101 says:

    screens are much sparper and speakers are said to be lush

  52. […] seen minor teardowns of the DSi, now iFixit has gone for the full demolition, and torn the thing completely […]

  53. Thomas says:

    Yep WiiBoy101…the only problem is that with the screen is it really does drain the battery quicker!

  54. WIIBOY101 UK GIZZA says:

    clocked gimped psp gpu = 111mhz ungimped psp = 166mhz

    dsI 3D GPU RUNS AT 133MHZ not so slow now is it plus the cpu its self plus the 2 2d gpus one per screen

    DSi 3D to say the top screen only

    would be 3d engine 133mhz backed up by 133mhz arm9 cpu and further backed up by top screens 2d gpu chip

    3d engine (vector) fully programmable plus main cpu fully programmable plus 2d gpu and its 3d extentions = 3D ENGINE FOR TOP SCREEN

    LEAVING ANOTHER 2D GPU AND SOME SECONDERY CPU POWER FOR THE LOWER CONTROL AND MAPP SCREEN

    psp like visuals WITH OUT LOADTIMES

    BELIEVE IT

  55. WIIBOY101 UK GIZZA says:

    DSI MYTH

    IT HAS ONE CPU MYTH

    IT HAS ONLY ONE OF THE CPUS DOUBLE CLOCKED MYTH

    ITS JUST DS WITH MORE RAM MYTH

    TRUTH

    ARM 7 @ 66MHZ ARM 9 @ 133MHZ ARM9 3D ENGINE CO-PROCESSOR @ 133MHZ 2 2D GPUS IWRAM SRAM CATCH RAM

    ALL ON A SINGLE DIE/CHIP

    ARM 11 THATS FANTASY

    DSi ram 128 bit FCram 16 MB

  56. WIIBOY101 UK GIZZA says:

    O-W-N-E-D

  57. WIIBOY101 UK GIZZA says:

    BUNNIE DID IT CROSS UR MIND THERES MORE THAN ONE CPU ON THAT DIE/CHIP

    LIKE A SOC “SYSTEM ON CHIP”” ARM 7 AND ARM 9 AND A HELL OF A LOT OF OTHER STUFF

    LOL BUNNIE

  58. Cool Pictures. Nice inside glimpse of the DSi.

  59. ONE CPU LOL says:

    people need to drop the one cpu fantasy one die yes one cpu no…

    people need to drop the no 3d hardware ds and dsi have that

    people need to drop the mad idea the arm 7 is no longer there

    its a SOC system on chip

    that one die contains the whole ENGINE ROOM

    2X CPUS 2X 2D GPUS 1X 3D ENGINE AND A HELL OF A LOT MORE

    ONE CPU GIGGLES LOL

  60. Ape says:

    I just bought two new DSi systems from Game Stop for both of my kids (ages 10 and 6). We are very disappointed for the following reasons. The DSi claims to support AAC music files. However, after four different conversion software attempts and $40 in conversion software fees, it won’t recognize the AAC files, as claimed. I gave up on trying to convert the music files and tried to find a site where I could just ‘buy’ AAC format music files. Guess what, there aren’t any. You would think that since this is the only type of music file the DSi supports, and that since you can’t convert any music files to AAC, Nintendo would have the common sense to have a site where you can download AAC music files from. (Duh!) I suppose buying AAC music wouldn’t work anyway since you can’t download “anything” from the internet, even if you have a SD card in the slot. When I called Nintendo customer support they tell you that you have to use music files with the following extensions: Mha, mP4, or 3Gp. So why isn’t that in the manual???? So, back to the drawing board and two days of frustration under my belt. I’m still not convinced these other file formats will work either, and really just want to return these over rated and overpriced items. As for the web browser (if you can even call it that), practically none of the sites that kids go to (Nick.com, Disney.com) will even load because the sites have flash animation built into the sites. You get a message telling you that you need to load the latest version of flash. However, the DSi won’t support the download. I’ve tried numerous other sites as well and can’t get them to load, with a different message, “A plug in is required that is not available…”, but you have no idea what plug in is missing and no way of getting it anyway cause like I said earlier you can’t download anything from the net. We can’t even get onto my kids’ elementary school web page! I sure hope everyone likes Wikipedia without being able to see the downloaded pictures, and that everyone is content with performing Google searches without being able to open any of the search result links, cause that’s about as good as it gets. As for the games that you’re supposed to be able to download to the SD card, I challenge you to find a single one. I’ve searched the net for two days and haven’t found a single one and neither has no on else unless they’re hooding out on us. What is also disappointing is that there are only approximately 7 games available from the DSi on-line Shop. They give you 1000 game points when you buy the DSi (which sounds like a lot) but the only decent games are how many points? You guessed it! 1000 points. Another word or caution. If you just purchased from Game Stop, don’t open it. Turn right around and take it back. If you open the package, they won’t refund your money. They only will give you trade-in value, which is a fraction of the price you just paid. They talke you into trading in your old DS (which by the way has all the capability of the new DSi, including internet, additional use of R4 cards, but no camera). When I called Nintendo Customer Support, they didn’t have a refund program and claimed they were appalled at Game Stop for not refunding my money and claimed they were going to call Game Stop personally. When I asked Nintendo customer support if there was going to be any updates to the system, now that we’re stuck with these low tech items, they had no idea if and when any upgrades would be made. Maybe I wouldn’t feel so cheated out of over $350 if I knew that there are going to be some upgrades in the future. And just so you know, you can’t play videos on the DSi, nor does it look like you will ever going to be able to. Video formats are not supported and the customer support didn’t know of any video download capabilities in the future. Nintendo really missed the mark on videos. Why they don’t have an app that allows video downloading (since they already have the internet access) for kids is beyond any reason. So, before you go screaming out the woor with hair on fire to buy this very expensive .3mp camera, cause the camera app is the only feature that the held either of my kids attention for more than 15 minutes, think about getting the I-Touch or the PSP instead. Don’t make the mistake I did. In today’s economy, who has $170 to literally throw away?

  61. Generic says:

    You can use AAC formats on dsi, and you can do it free via Itunes software. Sony has been using AAC for decades now.. Im not sure why your bothering with an “exclusive software to recode to AAC formats” fees.

    If you hunt around for Sony’s old SonicStage (discontinued) freeware version (used to be included with 2005 to 2007 sony walkmen mp3 players) on Sony’s Site its still there, that also recodes everything in AAC formats, though the quickest way is Itunes, fast, efficient and FREE.

    I think overall your being too harsh on a new platform vs old platform. It just came out 12 days ago for USA models.

    There are upgrades in the future, but like all things you must wait, if you want to keep up with the latest news, start with the country : JAPAN.

    Seriously take a step back and learn how to “use the net to Search for items before purchase”.

  62. WIIGODLIKEBOY101 says:

    theres no ever changing system spec theres IDIOTS GETTING IT WRONG AND THINKERS GETTING IT CORRECT……….

    the DSi is a ds running at 2x clock SOC system on chip……………….

    Nintendo did not over clock a cpu THAT’S RUBBISH,,

    THEY OVERCLOCKED THE BUS 33mhz bus is now 66mhz..

    resulting in all other clocks doubling..

    ram now 66mhz or 133mhz depending on 1to1 or 1to2 clockspeed…

    arm 7 now 66mhz arm 9 now 133mhz

    theres a system clock boost not a cpu clock boost

    are people seriously saying Nintendo only double clocked the cpu and left the bus at 33mhz and completely unbalanced the system …

    ram buses and all processors are now 2x clockspeed not only one cpu

  63. james braselton says:

    HI THERE DID SOME ONE MENTION LINUX AS A OPERATING SYSTEM I DONT THINK SOO BECUASE NOTHING INDICATES A LINUX OS I THINK THE NINTENDO HAS ITS OWN OS OR A JAVA LIKE SUN MICRO SYATEMS OR SYBAIN LIKE IN YOUR CELLPHONE AND BEISDES IN A COMPUTER MAGAZING SAYING LESS THEN 1% CONSUMERS USE LINUX SOO I DOUGHT THERE ARE GAMES THAT USES LINUX 20% CONSUMERS USE APPLES OR MACS AND 80% USES WINDOWS THATS WHY I AM THINKING SYBAIN CELLPHONE OS

  64. james braselton says:

    HI THERE WHEN I PLUGED THE 4 GB SDHC CARD IN MY NINTENDO DSI IT SAYS I HAVE 9,999 BLOCKS JUST WAIT UNTILL NINTENDO DSI 2 COMES OUT WITH SUPORT OF THE NEW SDXC CARDS BETWEEN 2 AND 100 TERABYTES YOU BE LOOKING AT MILLIONS OR BILLIONS OF GAMES PER CARD

  65. james braselton says:

    HI THERE THE NINTDO DSI IS REALY NOT THAT SLOW COMPARED TOO THE COMPUTERS IN 1986 I HAD A $4,000 IBM LAPTOP WITH A 33 MHZ CPU 4 MB OF RAM AND ONLY 365 MB HDD AT 4,200 RPMS VERY SLOW AND SLUGISH SOO A $170 GAMING SYSTEMS THAT OPERATES FASTER THEN A 1986 IBM AT $4,000 I WONT BE COMPLANING IF YOU WANT KNOW I STILL HAVE A COMADORE 64 64 KB OF MEMORY 1 MHZ CPU 5 1/4 FLOPPY DRIVE AND A CARTGIGE FOR GAMING AND I HAVE OLD ATRAI GAMING SYAYTEMS THAT WONT KEEP UP WITH THE NINTENDO DSI HOW COME THE FIRST GEN GAMERS REALY KNOWS HOW SLOW THE FIRST GAMING SYSTEMS ARE

  66. Cool Pictures. Nice inside glimpse of the DSi.

  67. Alexis says:

    i have two of the nintendo ds lites and i cant wait to upgrade to the nintendo dsi!!!!

  68. Now this is what the Nintendo DSi is all about!

  69. wiiboy101uk 2009 says:

    ARM 7 @ 66MHZ ARM 9 @ 133MHZ ARM9 3D ENGINE CO-PROCESSOR @ 133MHZ 2 2D GPUS IWRAM SRAM CATCH RAM

    ALL ON A SINGLE DIE/CHIP

    ARM 11 THATS FANTASY

    DSi ram 128 bit FCram 16 MB

    explain cop the recruits graphics and at 60 frames DS douters only shpows how lazy and anti nintendo 3rd partys are….

    dsi 2x processing 4x ram bigger faster dsi carts coming also more efficient

    now imagine cop the recruit built for DS i only

    dam fine graphics

  70. mchammer says:

    The NDSi is the best handheld ever imo, I don’t care what those PSP fanboys say….

  71. Great article, still not sure whether or not to purchase a DSi, I love my original brick of a DS and I don’t think I’d use any of the new features really.

  72. Nice set of led lights on it. According to some its not going to be hackable, so I’d be shocked to see the hack here anotation. http://www.gamestock.co.uk/dslite-vs-dsi

  73. R4 card says:

    Dude, your stuff is the bomb! The more I use it, the more it impresses me. It makes my life alot easier.

  74. i love the ndsi myself.

  75. The DSI is great, yes the screen is bigger and on mine it does drain my battery life. but for me the dsi is great. much better than the old nindendo ds and ds lite.

  76. egil maland says:

    Hello! Du you know how to convert a DSi or aDSi LL to english from Japaneese?
    Best REgards
    Egil

  77. ladarius says:

    booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

  78. ladarius says:

    buy me a dsi send it to this addres 6810 hefener road

  79. technoguy94 says:

    Do you know where the WiFi antenna is, an if so, could you mark it?

  80. Matilda Tino says:

    i loves the wii moteplus. We’ve enjoyed Academy of champions almost constantly since we got the motionplus. What games are your favourite?

  81. Tyler says:

    Is there something i can make that will make my dsi pick wifi up from farther away

  82. […] Images of the DSi motherboard for comparison (courtesy of bunnie:studios): […]

  83. r4 card says:

    Thanks for the pictures and taking it apart so we could see the guts of this thing… Amazing. DSi XL is what I am looking at right now.

  84. SupremeChosenOne says:

    HAHA to the kid that sited a web site saying the DS was non hackable. it has an SD slot they might as well of had a road map on how to soft mod it lol. and to the lady that is complaining that the DS doesn’t support flash… effing duh!!! what did you expect it is not an effing netbook for cryin’ out loud. and it does support AAC you are just too stupid to use Itunes for free and want to complain that you spent too much money on software that obviously blows. Btw the Lite didn’t have a web browser which she states it does. Think about this when the Ipod touch first came out it had a limited amount of apps as well and now look, and the PSP is an absolute joke the PSP Go is even worse. There is nothing wrong with the DSi. Dsi rocks!

  85. […] The item to guess was Nintendo DSi Board […]

  86. james braselton says:

    hi there yes every one is soo harsh on any and every new alwsoume technolgy thats why i am costantly bloging away about featuers specs the positive and negative if people were not soo harsh that i would not have too blog lime a million times a day