ARM7 Registers

The 3DS utilizes an onboard ARM7 core to handle TWL_FIRM and AGB_FIRM's ARM7 requirements. This is due to the fact that much of the hardware used by both ARM7 and ARM9 is (evidently) not physically hooked up to ARM11. Thus, ARM11 cannot simply emulate ARM7.

ARM7 has the GBA BIOS implemented in hardware. The BIOS is completely identical to the original GBA BIOS. The system is booted silently by calling SWI 0x1 (a.k.a. RegisterRamReset), followed by jumping to the code that does SWI 0x0 (a.k.a. SoftReset) to finish booting. The boot splash is still in BIOS, however, and can be seen by calling or replacing one of the previous interrupts with SWI 0x26 (a.k.a. HardReset).

Registers

ARM9 interfaces with the ARM7 through the following registers:

Type	Address	Name	Size (bytes)
u8	0x10018000	ARM7_CNT	1
Code	0x10018080	ARM7_CODE	32
u16	0x10018100	ARM7_SAVE_MODE	2
u16	0x10018104	ARM7_SAVE_MEMORY_CNT	2
u16	0x10018108	ARM7_RTC_CNT	2
u32	0x10018110	ARM7_RTC_VAL_DATE	4
u32	0x10018114	ARM7_RTC_VAL_TIME	4
u32	0x10018118	ARM7_RTC_VAL_SETTINGS	4
u32	0x1001811C	ARM7_RTC_VAL_ADJUST	4
u32	0x10018120	ARM7_SAVE_FLASH_CHIP_ERASE_CYCLES	4
u32	0x10018124	ARM7_SAVE_FLASH_SECTOR_ERASE_CYCLES	4
u32	0x10018128	ARM7_SAVE_FLASH_PROGRAM_CYCLES	4
u32	0x1001812C	ARM7_SAVE_EEPROM_WRITE_CYCLES	4

ARM7_CNT

This seems to control the mode of the ARM7. 1 = TWL, 2 = GBA.

ARM7_CODE

This region is an arm7 bootrom overlay, over the vector table at address 0. Once the ARM7 is taken out of reset by TwlProcess9, the reset vector will be jumped to, beginning execution. TwlProcess9 uses this to put ARM7 in a loop (TWL), and to set the POSTFLG and branch to more copied code (GBA). Execution is started by writing 0x8001 to CFG11_TWLMODE_0 after setting the mode via ARM7_CNT. Later, this overlay is disabled by the ARM7 via the "biosprot" register (0x04000308).

Reading uninitialized data in this 32-byte region leads to both screens displaying solid green (exception), and the CPU locking up.

ARM7_SAVE_MODE

This tells the save storage emulation hardware which device type to emulate (64k EEPROM, a 512k Flash chip model, and SRAM are all that have been used officially; several other 512k Flash chip models, two 1 Mbit Flash chip models and 4k EEPROM are also supported). This comes directly from the ROM footer.

ARM7_SAVE_MEMORY_CNT

This register controls whether the GBA save memory region located at 0x08080000 is accessible to ARM9 or to the ARM7 (via the emulated save chip). When it's set to 0x0 ARM7 has access, while ARM9 has access when it's set to 0x1.

ARM7_RTC_CNT

This register controls the emulated RTC hardware and access to some of its registers. To set or read the data from ARM7_RTC_VAL_SETTINGS or ARM7_RTC_VAL_ADJUST, first ARM7_RTC_CNT's bit 15 is waited on. Next ARM7_RTC_CNT is set to zero.

For a write: the two registers are written, a 1 is written to ARM7_RTC_CNT, and it is waited on the same as before. Afterwards if bit 14 is not set in ARM7_RTC_CNT, the value was set successfully. This also starts the emulated RTC.

For a read: a 2 is written to ARM7_RTC_CNT, it's waited on again. Afterwards, if bit 14 is not set, the aforementioned registers can be read. Presumably the hardware can be re-enabled by writing a zero to ARM7_RTC_CNT at this point, but AGB_FIRM does not.

ARM7_RTC_VAL_DATE / ARM7_RTC_VAL_TIME

These registers are set to the current LgyP9 date+time before the other RTC-related registers are used. They contain the following structure, set up on the stack then both u32 registers are written one after the other:

s8 year_since_2000_bcd;
s8 month_bcd;
s8 day_bcd;
s8 day_of_week;
s8 hour_bcd;
s8 minute_bcd;
s8 second_bcd;

ARM7_RTC_VAL_SETTINGS

This register appears to contain the emulated RTC chip's configuration (accessible via the "control" register on real hardware), containing settings like 12/24-hour mode. Access is controlled by ARM7_RTC_CNT (see above).

ARM7_RTC_VAL_ADJUST

This register appears to contain the emulated RTC chip's time difference, relative to ARM7_RTC_VAL_DATE / ARM7_RTC_VAL TIME, in seconds. Access is controlled by ARM7_RTC_CNT (see above).

ARM7_SAVE_FLASH_CHIP_ERASE_CYCLES

This register seems to configure the emulated Flash chip to take a specified amount of time to complete a chip erase operation (relative to the DS' ARM7/bus speed). Two variations exist in officially released games, one meant for 512k Flash chips and one for 1 Mbit Flash chips. It is copied from from rom footer + 0x10.

ARM7_SAVE_FLASH_SECTOR_ERASE_CYCLES

This register seems to configure the emulated Flash chip to take a specified amount of time to complete a sector erase operation (relative to the DS' ARM7/bus speed). Two variations exist in officially released games, one meant for 512k Flash chips and one for 1 Mbit Flash chips. It is copied from from rom footer + 0x14.

ARM7_SAVE_FLASH_PROGRAM_CYCLES

This register seems to configure the emulated Flash chip to take a specified amount of time to complete a program operation (relative to the DS' ARM7/bus speed). Two variations exist in officially released games, one meant for 512k Flash chips and one for 1 Mbit Flash chips. It is copied from from rom footer + 0x18.

ARM7_SAVE_EEPROM_WRITE_CYCLES

This register seems to configure the emulated EEPROM chip to take a specified amount of time to complete a write operation (relative to the DS' ARM7/bus speed). Two variations exist in officially released games, one meant for 64k EEPROM chips and one for 4k EEPROM chips. It is copied from from rom footer + 0x1C.

Memory map

The virtual memory mapping for the ARM7 is the same as for the other core. However, it has additional internal memory mapped to it. Interestingly enough, much of this memory seems to lie within ARM9's own internal memory.

• 0x08060000 → 0x03800000, ARM7 WRAM (64KiB)
• 0x080B0000 → 0x03000000, GBA IWRAM (32KiB)
• 0x08080000 → EEPROM/SRAM/Flash 512k/Flash 1Mbit (the 2 512k banks are contiguous in memory). Access is controlled by ARM7_SAVE_MEMORY_CNT (see above). 0x080C0000 holds a mirror which is used by LgyP9 on boot to read the SD savedata before the mode switch, the data is then copied.
• 0x01FFC000 → 0x01000000, ARM9 ITCM under TWL (16KiB)