The Nintendo DS

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The Nintendo DS

• More than just fun and games.

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The Nintendo DS

• Programming and controlling a
• dedicated-purpose computer system.

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Why Should I Care?
65 million units
8.5 billion sales

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Why Should I Care?

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Why Should I Care?

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"Homebrew" Computing

• The Importance of Fiddling with Things

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Spacewar (1962)
Pong (1966/1972)
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Space Travel game (1969)
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Apple I (1976)
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Who is Into Homebrew Computing?
Computer Enthusiasts

• Engineers

Tinkerers
Geeks
Innovators!
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Inside the Nintendo DS

• Hardware

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Two TFT back-lighted screens
Including a resistive touchpad integrated in the
bottom screen
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Integrated wireless networking via Wi-Fi
12 buttons for game-play inputs
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16-channel sound output
Integrated microphone with limited speech
recognition
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Inside the Nintendo DS

• System Architecture and Design

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First CPU ARM9 67 MHz, 200-300 MIPS, 16/32 bit
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Second CPU ARM7 33 MHz, 20 MIPS, 16/32 bit
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Main memory 4MB of built-in RAM
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Dedicated video RAM 656 KB in 9 memory banks
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Other memory banks ARM9 caches, ARM7 Fast RAM,
shared Fast RAM, DTCM and ITCM
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Two slots for external Flash memory DS
software port and legacy GBA software port
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Developing for the DS
The Nintendo DS Software Development Environment
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It is a shame that homebrew development can't be
officially sanctioned and supported, because it
would be a wonderful platform for a modern
generation of programmers to be able to get a
real feel for low level design work, to be
contrasted with the high level web and
application work that so many entry level people
start with.
John Carmack
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Today's Homebrew Devices
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Nintendo DS Apple iPhone
Open SDK 399 - 499 (New) 500 - 800
(Used/Unlocked)
No Homebrew Support 115 - 130 (New) 40 -
75 (Used)
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The DS is not meant to be a homebrew device
because Nintendo is concerned that people will
use homebrew innovations to access and play
pirated games.
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No floating point unit
Encryption Dynamic libraries NOT
supported Need to synchronize two CPUs
DS Homebrew Challenges
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Libraries are available for Homebrew coding

• devkitARM ARM preprocessor, compiler linker
• libnds a low-level NDS library
• palib  an optional higher level library
• dswifi an add-on to libnds for wi-fi support
• libfat filesystem manager for  r/w to media
• DeSmuME and NOGBA emulators for testing

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Just You and the Bits Chips

• Even with the available libraries, you must
  understand
• what is happening at a very low level, in order
  to
• write code that will work.
• Programming Options
• ARM assembly
• C/C

DS TV tuner
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Two CPUs Two (main) functions
ARM7
ARM9
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Check out what you can program on a Nintendo DS!
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GPS on the DS (using Google Maps)
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Any questions?
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