The 3DS: under the hood

More of the technology behind Nintendo's newly-unveiled 3DS portable has been revealed. The two-screen handheld will be based around Japanese processor developer Digital Media Professional's PICA200 graphics core.

Features such as anti-aliasing and per-pixel lighting are also supported, although the use of OpenGL ES 1.1 would seem to suggest that the chip will be fixed-function rather than programmable.

"Our company has the goal of realizing high quality graphics such as game consoles and glasses-free 3D while keeping power dissipation low," said DMP's CEO Tatsuo Yamamoto. "We are pleased that our long-developed Maestro Technology has been of assistance."

The 3DS has been mooted as having graphical clout almost on a par with the Wii. For more details on how the PICA200 might achieve that, browse the chip's official specifications and the technical analysis of them at sister site Eurogamer.net.