Architecture Of Handheld Gaming Devices


D.C.

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Dec 26, 2005
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Hi guys,

I'm giving a presentation on architectures of handeld gaming devices for a course on advanced embedded archtectures. I've been looking around the internet (wiki, forums, emu websites) for information, but I haven't been able to find specific information on more current handhelds like the psp and the nintendo ds.
So if anybody has some technical notes on these two handhelds or any other major handheld device (gameboy advace etc) or can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it very much.

Thanks in advance.
 
yeah I can see that, but still, why would you write about the nds or the psp when you could be doing a presentation of the gp2x's architecture. I guess the nds and psp are more professionally made and probably more high-end...

good luck though.
 
xnopasaranx said:
yeah I can see that, but still, why would you write about the nds or the psp when you could be doing a presentation of the gp2x's architecture. I guess the nds and psp are more professionally made and probably more high-end...

good luck though.
I'll also discuss the gp2x's architecture. I didn't request any information on it, becuase everybody would be directing me to the gp2x's wiki site. However, if anybody has some additional information on the gp2x architecture (ie general hardware layout diagram), it's more than welcome.
 
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Well, the hardware layout of the gp2x is pretty simple but i havent looked that much into it.

Basically its a ARM System on a chip. Most of the controls are integrated into that main chip. Than we have the 64MB NAND-Flash which holds the linux-system and 64MB dram.
I dont know if the gp2x has NOR-Flash... but i think it has because its normally pretty hard to boot directely from NAND so its pretty common to install the bootloader to a EEPROM or a NOR-Flash.
Then there is, like a hd in a pc, the sd which is used for gamefiles/applications.

Furthermore we have a Conexant chip which is used for TV encoding and stuff for the TV-Out. I think the sound is handled by the ARM core just like usb and those things. The rest is just some basic i/o and power supply.

And thats about it :D
As you see the gp2x has no system specific chips, it uses standard chips that are widely distributed. The psp and nds use chips which are designed just for those systems and its more complicated to understand those. (and i havent really read about those yet :D)

The reason why i know a bit about our black beauty is that i am trying to design a small embedded linux webserver which uses technology quite similar to the gp2x :lol:

hope i could help you at least a bit B)
 
There is no NOR in the GP2X, the chip apparently has some kind of boot mechanism hardwired to load from the NAND.
 
any chance of that presentation being uploaded or presented to the gp32x community? I think it would be interesting for a few of us.
 
Orkie said:
There is no NOR in the GP2X, the chip apparently has some kind of boot mechanism hardwired to load from the NAND.
Yup, on startup the 920 is held in reset whilst the built-in bootstrap DMA's a chunk of NAND to RAM, and then executes it by releasing the reset, which loads uboot, which loads the kernel, etc. Manufacturers guarantee that the beginning part of nand is error free.
 
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trooper said:
How about our beloved GP32 ?, The Grandfather of the GP2x, He`s not that old.

Trooper
I might mention "her" briefly, due to the restricted length of the presentation however, I have to limit the number of handhelds I will discuss.

xnopasaranx said:
any chance of that presentation being uploaded or presented to the gp32x community? I think it would be interesting for a few of us.
I'll think about it :D

Squidge said:
Orkie said:
There is no NOR in the GP2X, the chip apparently has some kind of boot mechanism hardwired to load from the NAND.
Yup, on startup the 920 is held in reset whilst the built-in bootstrap DMA's a chunk of NAND to RAM, and then executes it by releasing the reset, which loads uboot, which loads the kernel, etc. Manufacturers guarantee that the beginning part of nand is error free.


Good to know :)
 
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