3dbrew - User contributions [en]

Hardware

2026-02-01T05:32:58Z

UserSer: Added n2dsxl board images. Swapped o3ds images, with side A being front. added o3ds to front/back headers.

This page lists and describes the hardware found inside the Nintendo 3DS. Many of these parts are custom made and are expanded upon here or in other pages.

== Common hardware ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Type !! Description
|-
| ARM11 Processor Core || Old3DS: [http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.ddi0360f/index.html ARM11 2x MPCore & 2x VFPv2 Co-Processor] 268MHz (268,111,856.0 ± 2-32 Hz, i.e. exactly twice the clock rate of the ARM9).

New3DS: 4x MPCore, 4x VFPv2, able to run up to 804MHz (see below). It also has an optional 2MB L2 cache.
|-
| ARM9 Processor Core || [http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.ddi0201d/index.html ARM946] 134MHz (134,055,927.9 ± 2-32 Hz),
|-
| GPU || [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PICA200 DMP PICA] 268MHz,
|-
| VRAM || 6 MB within SoC.
|-
| Top screen || 800x240, with only 400 usable pixels per eye per line.
|-
| Bottom screen || 320x240, with resistive touch overlay.
|-
| DSP || [https://twitter.com/CEVADSP/status/177172880918986752 CEVA TeakLite]. 134Mhz. 24ch 32728Hz sampling rates.
|}

New3DS exclusives are able to clock the CPU at 804MHz, but this appears to be limited to the currently running application/app cores. Timed by running svcGetSystemTick on either side of a long idle loop to stay in the current process context. svcGetSystemTick uses a tick counter running at 268MHz in this mode.

On New3DS: when Home Menu is active, the system runs at 804MHz. For everything else, it's 268MHz, except when the app(let) has the required flag set. See [[NCCH/Extended_Header|here]] and [[PDN_Registers|here]] for details, regarding clock-rate and cache.

For New3DS-only there are multiple clock-rate multiplier values available in [[PDN_Registers|hardware]], but since the relevant code is only implemented in the New3DS ARM11-kernel, the only non-normal clock-rate available with official kernel code is 3x.

== Specifications ==
{| class="wikitable"
! Type !! 3DS !! 3DSXL !! 2DS !! N3DS !! N3DSXL !! N2DSXL
|-
| Model || CTR-001 || SPR-001 || FTR-001 || KTR-001 || RED-001 || JAN-001
|-
| SoC || CPU CTR
|| CPU CTR A
CPU CTR
|| CPU CTR B || CPU LGR A || CPU LGR A || CPU LGR A

|-
| FCRAM || [https://web.archive.org/web/20221022124807/https://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/MICRO/fma/pdf/MB81EDS516545_e511463.pdf 2x64MB Fujitsu MB82M8080-07L] || Fujitsu MB82DBS16641 || Fujitsu MB82DBS1664 || ?? || Fujitsu MB82MK9A9A || Fujitsu MB82MK9A9A
|-
| Top Screen || 3.53 in, 3D || 4.88 in, 3D || 3.53 in cropped from a single panel || 3.88 in, 3D || 4.88 in, 3D || 4.88 in (?)
|-
| Bottom Screen || 3.00 in || 4.18 in || 3.00 in cropped from a single panel || 3.33 in || 4.18 in || 4.18 in (?)
|-
| Storage ||colspan="2"| Toshiba THGBM2G3P1FBAI8 1GB ||colspan="1"| Changed between O3DS and N3DS parts depending on production date ||colspan="2"| Samsung KLM4G1YEQC 4GB (in 1.3GiB SLC mode) or Toshiba THGBMBG4P1KBAIT 2GB (MLC, approx. 1.8GiB usable) ||colspan="1"| Samsung KLM4G1FEPD 4GB
|-
| Speaker, Microphone, Circlepad, Touch controller || TI PAIC3010B 0AA37DW || ?? || TI AIC3010D 35AQ9NW || TI AIC3010B 39C4ETW || TI AIC3010D 48C01JW || ??
|-
| Gyroscope || [https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Sensors/Gyro/PS-ITG-3200-00-01.4.pdf Invensense ITG-3270 MEMS Gyroscope] || ?? || ?? || ?? || ?? || ??
|-
| Accelerometer || ST Micro 2048 33DH X1MAQ Accelerometer Model LIS331DH || ?? || ?? || ?? || ?? || ??
|-
| Infrared IC || NXP S750 0803 TSD031C || ?? || ?? || ?? || NXP S750 1603 TSD438C || NXP S750 0210 TSD651C
|-
| Custom Microcontroller || Renesas UC CTR || ?? || Renesas UC CTR 324KM47 KG10 || Renesas UC KTR || Renesas UC KTR 442KM13 TK14 || ??
|-
| PMIC? || TI 93045A4 OAAH86W || ?? || ?? || TI 93045A4 38A6TYW G2 || TI 93045A4 49AF3NW G2 || TI 93045A4 72ASRHW G2
|-
| Charging IC ||colspan="6"| CKP TI [http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/bq24072.pdf BQ24072]
|-
| Wifi || Atheros AR6014 || ?? || ?? || ?? || Atheros AR6014G-AL1C || ??
|-
| Wifi SPI Flash
| Raw ID data: 20 58 || ?? || ?? || Raw ID data: 62 62 || ?? || ??
|}

* [11] Official Documentation

* [5],[10] According to iFixit.com ([http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nintendo-3DS-Teardown/5029/1#s22696 source]):

* Datasheet for memory is for a chip in the same series, it has less memory than the one inside the 3DS (128mbits vs 512mbits).

* There is a trove of data on the FCC website at [https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=462292&fcc_id=%27EW4DWMW028%27].

* [12] This IC is somewhat similar to [http://www.alldatasheet.net/datasheet-pdf/pdf/347838/NXP/SC16IS750IBS.html this].

* The Raw ID data for Wifi SPI Flash is from command 0x9F, RDID.

== FCRAM ==

There is one FCRAM (Fast Cycle RAM) IC in the 3DS, produced by Fujitsu and branded as MB82M8080-07L. The Fujitsu MB82M8080-07L chip internally contains 2 dies, where each die is branded MB81EDS516545 and MB82DBS08645.

The MB81EDS516545 die is a CMOS Fast Cycle Random Access Memory (FCRAM) with Low Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR) SDRAM Interface containing 512MBit storage accessible in a 64-bit format. The MB81EDS516545 is suited for consumer applications requiring high data bandwidth with low power consumption.

== SoC ==

The 3DS has much of it's internals housed in a SoC (System on Chip) just like it's predecessors. This is done to reduce build costs, cut down on power consumption, as well as make the PCB layout less complex and make the system harder to tamper with. The SoC, branded as the Nintendo 1048 0H, contains the CPU, GPU, DSP and VRAM.

According to official documents, the CPU used is a dual-core ARM11 CPU, clocked at 268MHz. One core is dedicated to system software, while the other is used for application programming, each known as the syscore and appcore, respectively.

== GPU ==

Designed by Digital Media Professionals Inc. (DMP) and codenamed PICA200, 268Mhz.

Block diagram of an ULTRAY2000 based architecture PICA200:

[[File:Pica200BlockDiagram.png]]

PICA200 is compatible with OpenGL ES 1.1. It furthermore provides unique functionality for:
* Per-fragment lighting ("Lighting Maestro")
* Hard- and soft-shadowing ("Shadow Maestro")
* Polygon subdivision ("Figure Maestro")
* Bump mapping and procedural textures ("Mapping Maestro")
* Rendering of gaseous objects ("Particle Maestro")

Some parts of the extended functionality are provided in hardware by an extended geometry pipeline. Most importantly, PICA200 has three programmable vertex processors. There is furthermore a unit called [[GPU/Primitive_Engine|Primitive Engine]], which is a geometry shader unit (using the same instruction set as vertex shaders) with support for variable-size primitives. The Primitive Engine functionality may be disabled, and the geometry shader unit then acts as a fourth vertex processor. See [[Shader_Instruction_Set]] for more information on the shader instruction set.

[[GPU/Fragment Lighting|Fragment lighting]] is implemented as an optional pipeline step during pixel processing. It's implemented by having the vertex shader output an additional attribute describing the transformation (represented by a quaternion) to surface-local space. This per-vertex quaternion can then be interpolated across screen space to calculate dot products relevant for lighting (e.g. light vector dot normal vector). To provide support for advanced lighting models, these dot products are used as indices into programmable lookup tables. With this setup, PICA200 in particular supports the shading models Blinn-Phong, Cook-Terrance, Ward, and microfacet-based BRDF-models.

PICA200 supports four texture units, the fourth of which is used exclusively for [[GPU/Procedural Texture Generation|procedural texture generation]].

== SDIO controller ==

Nintendo recommends SD cards up to 32 GB. The internal SDIO controller seems to support SD cards up to 2.199 Terabyte (32-bit sector number). Up to 2TB (AGI TF138) has been tested and works, however larger SD sizes increase system boot time. The larger the SD capacity, the greater the bootup slowdown. 64-128GB tends to be the sweet spot for most users, with only an extra 0.5-1.0 seconds added to boot time as the tradeoff for the larger size.

SD cards should be formatted FAT32 with a 64KB unit size for maximum compatibility.

[[File:Gm9_2tb_sd.png]]
[[File:Ftpd_2tb_sd.png]]

{| class="wikitable"
! Capacity !! Boot time (NEW2DS) !! Boot time (OLD3DS)
|-
| No SD cards || 7 seconds || 8 seconds
|-
| 16GB || 10 seconds || 11 seconds
|-
| 64GB || 12 seconds || 11 seconds
|-
| 256GB || 19 seconds || 20 seconds
|-
| 2TB || 60 seconds || 60 seconds
|}

* Tests were made on NEW2DS 11.16.0.49J and OLD3DS 11.15.0.47J.
* Boot time is the time until you see the home menu (software icons are still loading) after pressing power button.

== Images ==

=== Old 3ds Front ===

[[Image:CTR_Back.jpg]]

[http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/n1CKAdbPrHyNPNuW High Resolution]

=== Old 3ds Back ===

[[Image:CTR_Front.jpg|600px]]

[http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/ishJaSCOwLkvbLYK High Resolution]

=== New 2ds XL Front ===

[[File:N2dsxl_board_front.png|600px]]

=== New 2ds XL Back ===

[[File:N2dsxl_board_back_fixed.png|600px]]

=== NAND pinout ===

NAND dumping has been successful, but the image is encrypted.

==== Normal model ====

[[Image:CTR_NAND_pinout.png]]

==== XL model ====

[[Image:CTR_NAND_pinout_XL.jpg|500px]]

==== 2DS ====

[[Image:2DSeMMC.jpg|500px]]

==== New 3DS ====

[[Image:N3DSeMMC.jpg]]

==== New 3DS XL ====

[[Image:N3DSXLeMMC.jpg]]

=== WiFi dongle pinout ===
[[Image:CTR_WiFiDongle_pinout.png|600px]]

SDIO interface is colored red:
* CLK
* CMD
* D0, D1, D2, D3

This is the interface for the 'NEW' WiFi module (based on Atheros AR6002) first included in DSi.

The proprietary DS-mode WiFi is colored yellow, pins are unknown.

I²C eeprom is colored blue:
* SCL
* SDA

SPI Flash is colored purple:
* CLK
* CS#
* SI
* SO
* WP#
* NC

=== Auxiliary Microcontroller (MCU) ===
[[Image:CTR_UC.png|600px]]

Monitors HOME button, WiFi switch, 3D slider, volume control slider.
Controls LEDs, various power supplies via an I²C connection to the PMIC.

Two I²C buses are attached to the MCU. For one, the SoC is the master; for the other, the MCU is the master.

Devices attached to MCU master I²C bus:
* MCU (master)
* Fuel Gauge
* Accelerometer (slave address 0x18)
* PMIC
* maybe more?

Devices attached to the SoC master I²C bus:
* SoC (master)
* MCU
* LCD
* Camera
* QTM (New3DS-only)

The MCU uses the [http://mcs.uwsuper.edu/sb/327/Resources/RL78.pdf RL78 ISA].

The MCU uses some custom Special Function Registers, but documentation for much of the hardware protocol/general SFRs can be found [http://courses.ee.sun.ac.za/Computer_Systems_245/Dokumentasie/RL78%20hardware%20manual%20(registers).pdf here].

File:N2dsxl board back fixed.png

2026-02-01T05:07:01Z

UserSer: Back of Australian New 2ds XL Motherboard. Note one of the shoulder buttons is snapped off. Reuploaded as png because the jpg failed to generate a thumbnail.

== Summary ==
Back of Australian New 2ds XL Motherboard. Note one of the shoulder buttons is snapped off. Reuploaded as png because the jpg failed to generate a thumbnail.

File:N2dsxl board front.png

2026-02-01T05:03:56Z

UserSer: Front of an Australian New 2ds XL Motherboard. Note one of the shoulder buttons is snapped off. Using png this time as jpg didn't generate thumbnail.

== Summary ==
Front of an Australian New 2ds XL Motherboard. Note one of the shoulder buttons is snapped off. Using png this time as jpg didn't generate thumbnail.

File:N2dsxl board back.jpg

2026-02-01T04:21:49Z

UserSer: Back of australian New 2ds xl Motherboard. Note one of the shoulder buttons is snapped off.

== Summary ==
Back of australian New 2ds xl Motherboard. Note one of the shoulder buttons is snapped off.

Serials

2025-11-24T06:08:30Z

UserSer: adding Algorithm as a single formula to summerise the paragraph.

This page talks about the 3DS products' serial number and model number structures (the console, manual, accessories, games, etc...).

== Console Serial Numbers ==

A 3DS console serial number is composed of at least two letters followed by nine decimal digits. The ninth digit is a "check digit", meaning that it is derived from the other digits.

The check digit is an industry-standard algorithm, the one used for UPC codes. To calculate the check digit of a 3DS console, separate the non-check digits into "odd" and "even" groups, where the "odd" group is digits in odd-numbered positions, and the "even" group is digits in even-numbered positions. (The first digit is "odd", with "first" representing "1".)

After separating the digits, add the digits in each group together. Multiply the sum of the even digits by 3, then add the sum of the odd digits. To calculate the check digit, take this value modulo 10, and if not 0, subtract from 10.

Algorithm: check digit = (10 - (((3 * evenSum) + oddSum) % 10)) % 10

Example: CW404567772

The non-check digits are 40456777. Separating into odd and even groups, we get the following:

Odds: 4 + 4 + 6 + 7 = 21
Evens: 0 + 5 + 7 + 7 = 19

Applying the algorithm, we get ((3 * 19) + 21) % 10 = 8, which is not 0, thus 10 - 8 = 2, matching the example's check digit.

The letter prefixes are a letter specifying the device, followed by one letter specifying the region in which it was sold. In some regions, a third letter is present; a current guess is that this letter distinguishes among factories for a given sales region. Note that several different sales regions' console may be considered to be the same region for region-locking purposes, such as Europe and Australia.

The current serial number scheme began with the DSi, hence its listing in the tables below. Among standalone consoles, the Wii U belongs to this scheme as well; the Switch started a new scheme.

{| class="wikitable"
! Model !! Device Prefix (Retail) !! Device Prefix (Dev/Test)
|-
| ''Wii'' || L || R
|-
| ''DSi'' || T || V
|-
| ''DSi XL/LL'' || W || D
|-
| ''Nintendo Zone Box'' || Z || ''N/A''
|-
| ''Wii U'' || F/G || ''unknown''
|-
| ''Wii U gamepad'' || J || J
|-
| ''3DS'' || C || E
|-
| ''3DS XL/LL'' || S || R
|-
| ''2DS'' || A || P
|-
| ''New 3DS'' || Y || Y
|-
| ''New 3DS XL/LL'' || Q || Q
|-
| ''New 2DS XL/LL'' || N || N
|}

Some United Kingdom models' serial numbers will include "UH" after the device model prefix.

Test ("Panda") units with the same prefix as retail can be distinguished by test units having 00 or 01 as the first two digits of the serial number portion. 00 was used with the New 3DS and New 3DS XL for test units; 01 was used with the New 2DS XL test unit. Preview versions of the N2DS XL given out to the press had 01; these appear to have been test units with the development titles deleted.

Old 3DS development systems (Partner-CTR, IS-CTR-BOX, IS-SPR-BOX) use the "E" and "R" prefixes like test systems, but have 90 (Partner-CTR) or 91 (IS-CTR-BOX, IS-SPR-BOX) as their first two digits. Similarly, the main New 3DS development unit, IS-SNAKE-BOX, uses the Y prefix (same as retail) with 91. It is currently unknown what is the serial number format of the rare New 3DS XL development system (IS-CLOSER-BOX).

{| class="wikitable"
! Sales Region !! Region Lock !! Region Suffix
|-
| Japan || Japan || JE, JF, JH, JM
|-
| North America || North America || W
|-
| Brazil || North America || B
|-
| Middle East / Southeast Asia || North America || S
|-
| Europe || Europe || EE, EF, EH, EM
|-
| Australia || Europe || AF, AH, AG, AM
|-
| South Korea || Korea || KF, KH, KM
|-
| China (iQue) || China || CF, CH, CM
|}

== Console Models ==

{| class="wikitable"
! Device !! Product Code
|-
| ''DS'' || NTR
|-
| ''DS lite'' || USG
|-
| ''DSi'' || TWL
|-
| ''DSi XL/LL'' || UTL
|-
| ''Wii U'' || WUP
|-
| 3DS || CTR
|-
| 3DS XL/LL || SPR
|-
| 2DS || FTR
|-
| [[New 3DS]] || KTR
|-
| [[New 3DS]] XL/LL || RED
|-
| New 2DS XL/LL || JAN
|}

The DS had the product code NTR (short for Nitro), so we see the TR is recurring.

== Title ID and Unique ID ==
''see [[Titles]]''

== NCCH Product Code ==

This serial is similiar to the "physical serial" described later in this page; it is the canonical identifier for a specific title in the field of business formalities with Nintendo, but this is not reflected in the 3DS's software architecture (where it is vastly unused in favor of the Title ID: it is therefore considered the successor of the "internal name" contained in ROMs of previous handhelds), is not guaranteed to be unique.

The product code is located in a [[NCCH]]'s header (not its ExHeader).

The product code "CTR-P-CTAP" is the default generic product code for NCCH files. Most [[NCSD|NCCHs apart from the first one]] in a title are generally CTR-P-CTAP.
Referring to "the product code of a title" is therefore a simplification for "the product code of the NCCH in its first partition".

So, for example, a Japanese copy of Ridge Racer 3D would have a product code of "CTR-P-ARRJ" and a serial of "LNA-CTR-ARRJ-JPN".

A Nintendo-assigned product code follows this format, however, there is no requirement for a product code to match or resemble this structure as long as it's within the length limit:

[CTR/KTR]-[Category letter]-[Type][Identifier][Region]-[Sub ID]

{| class="wikitable"
! Category letter !! Description
|-
| P || Cartridge software, or downloadable versions of them.
|-
| B || Cartridge demos
|-
| N || Digital-only releases, including [[Title list|system applications and applets]].
|-
| M || [[DLC]]
|-
| T || [[eShop Demos]], excluding so-called "special demos" which are category N.
|-
| U || [[Title list#0004000E - Add-on Content (Updates)|Patches]] for category P titles.
|}

The "sub ID" only applies to DLC, demos, and local copies of Download Play titles. It's a 2-digit number associated with the [[Title list|Title ID Variation]].

See the next chapter for explanation of the other components of the Product Code.

== Physical Serial ==
[Product][Retail/Demo]-[Platform]-[Type][Game ID][Region]-[Label Region]

{| class="wikitable"
! Field !! Length !! Description !! colspan=2 | Values
|-
|-align=center
| rowspan="6" | Product
| rowspan="6" | 2
| rowspan="6" | Product type
|-
| LN || Cartridge
|-
| MA || Instruction manual
|-
| TS || Game box
|-
| FA || Leaflet
|-
| MK || Quick-start Guide
|-align=center
| rowspan="3" | Retail/Demo
| rowspan="3" | 1
| rowspan="3" |
|-
| A || Retail
|-
| Z || Demo
|-align=center
| rowspan="3" | CTR/KTR
| rowspan="3" | 3
| rowspan="3" | Platform
|-
| CTR || 3DS
|-
| KTR || New 3DS
|-align=center
| rowspan="11" | Type
| rowspan="11" | 1
| rowspan="11" |
|-
| A || retail
|-
| B || retail
|-
| C || used for N3DS exclusive retail and default 'CTAP'
|-
| E || used for card 2 type retail cartridges
|-
| H || used for built in applications like [[Mii Maker]]
|-
| J || normal eShop Title
|-
| K || normal eShop Title?
|-
| S || 3D Classics
|-
| P || used with GBA eShop titles
|-
| T || used with NES eShop titles
|-align=center
| Identifier
| 2
| colspan=3 |Game ID (two alphanumeric characters)
|-align=center
| rowspan="10" | Region
| rowspan="10" | 1
| rowspan="10" |
|-
| E || English (US)
|-
| P || PAL (Europe/Australia)
|-
| J || Japanese (Japan)
|-
| K || Korean (Korea)
|-
| C || Chinese (China/Taiwan)
|-
| Y || Multiple regions
|-
| W || Tai'''w'''an(?) (Taiwan/Hong Kong)
|-
| Z || Multiple regions
|-
| A || All (region-free)
|-
|-align=center
| rowspan="12" | Label Region
| rowspan="12" | 3
| rowspan="12" |
|-
| USA || United States
|-
| EUR || Europe
|-
| CAN || Canada (US version with additional French text added to box)
|-
| AUS || Australia
|-
| JPN || Japan
|-
| KOR || Korea
|-
| TWN || Taiwan/Hong Kong
|-
| CHT || Taiwan/Hong Kong ("Chinese-Traditional")
|-
| CHN || China
|-
| UKV || United Kingdom ("United Kingdom version")
|-
| MDE || Saudi Arabia/U.A.E./Malaysia/Singapore ("Middle East")
|}

=== Electronic Manuals ===

Some eShop titles have [[NCCH#CFA|Electronic Manuals]] which store the product code at the end of the 'Health & Safety' section of the manual. However, product codes can differ from the above format as shown below:

CTR-[P/N/T/U]-[Type][Game ID][Region]-[Region]-[Digit]

CTR-[Type][Game ID][Region]-[Region]-[Digit]

* P/N/T/U - Same as in product code structure
* [Type][Game ID][Region] - Same as in serial structure
* [Region] - A three character representation of the title region, i.e. 'EUR' (not always present)
* [Digit] - A single digit usually '1' or '0' (not always present). Possibly revision or manual revision.

'''Note:''' These alternate versions of the product code, potentially found in [[NCCH#CFA|Electronic Manuals]] don't represent the actual product code, as found in the game's CXI. They are only found in the game's Home Menu manual, and on the game's packaging and external labeling.

==Back of Card Serial==
AREPY10111 (example)

AAAABCDEEE 
'''A''' - Identifier (last 4 digits of product code) 
'''B''' - Production Month (numbers, then after Sep its X,Y,Z for Oct,Nov,Dec) 
'''C''' - Production Year (2010 + C)* 
'''D''' - Revision/Remaster Version (should match the main NCCH's Exheader Remaster Version) 
'''E''' - Production Run? (000-999)**

<nowiki>* </nowiki>Or (2020 + C), if produced in that decade. Example [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcH8mK6yXj4 here] at the 2:10 mark. 
<nowiki>** </nowiki>European demo/kiosk carts have "08B" or "08H"