Nintendo 3DS
The Nintendo 3DS is Nintendo's second recent handheld console family, released in 2011, which precedes the Nintendo Switch and succeeds the Nintendo DS family of consoles. This console is equipped with stereoscopic 3D displays which serve as the namesake, paying homage to its predecessor. Using a trio of ARM processors, all of which spanning as far back as the Game Boy Advance, the console also natively has native virtualisation support from the GBA to the Nintendo DS via hardware.
Hardware
Powered primarily by its ARM11 MPCore and its ARM946 single-core processor, the Nintendo 3DS was the weakest console entry in the eighth generation of video game consoles.
The ARM11 is used for 3DS application mode, which is everything in userland execution. Userland execution encompasses any game or application-related code.
Specifically, the ARM946 is the same processor used for the DS-side code execution on the original Nintendo DS. On the Nintendo 3DS, it is used as a primary security processor, interfacing directly with the hardware, and enforces many hardware related verification services and startup checks.
The console also has an ARM7TMDI exclusively for full NDS backwards compatibility, as the Nintendo DS used the ARM7 as a security and hardware monitor. By extension, as the ARM7 is the same model used in the Game Boy Advance, the Nintendo 3DS officially runs these games natively as part of the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador's Program launched in 2011.
The Nintendo 3DS employs a parallax barrier in front of the 800x240px LCD to physically separate every row of pixels from each eye, causing each eye to see slightly different, complete images like this, which is the basis behind three-dimensional stereoscopy and real-life depth perception.
Horizon
The name of the Nintendo 3DS operating system is officially named Horizon, citing internal documentation and toolkits. It is a microkernel based OS, with applications interfacing with individual services, which, in turn, interface with the kernel itself.
Exploits
Notes
- The console will refuse to boot if either screen backlight is not present when the console attempts to initialise them. Aside from this, the only other component needed to boot to the HOME Menu is the battery and battery ribbon cable (if applicable).
- The top LCD can be overclocked to at least 300Hz.