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Handheld

Game Boy Advance

An ARM7TDMI handheld that kept the Game Boy's tile and sprite hardware and added bitmap modes, so it could run its predecessor's cartridges as well as its own.

Manufacturer
Nintendo
Released
March 2001
Region
Japan
Record status
provisional
An indigo Game Boy Advance against white, held at an angle: a wide handheld with the screen in the middle, a gray cross-shaped pad at the left, A and B buttons at the right, and shoulder buttons along the top edge. The screen is off.

A Game Boy Advance in Indigo, one of the launch colors, with the original unlit screen. The screen is off.

Evan-Amos · Public domain (released by its author) · Wikimedia Commons

About this machine

The GBA carries a second, older processor alongside the ARM, so Game Boy cartridges run on the silicon they were written for. The compatibility is in the hardware, and a Game Boy game is not being emulated when it runs here.

Configuration

Original retail handheld

Component Role Count Clock Capacity
ARM7TDMI Main CPU 1 16 MHz Nominal clock —
Game Boy Advance PPU GPU 1 unknown Nominal clock —
Game Boy Advance writable RAM System memory 1 — 288 KiB
Game Boy Advance video RAM Sits inside the system on a chip alongside the picture processor, separate from the two work-RAM banks. Video memory 1 — 98 KiB

Figures for the whole machine

Game Boy Advance: system figures

provisional A figure marked provisional is recorded but not accepted: its evidence is unsettled. It may rely on one source, an unconfirmed announcement, or a digit read from a damaged scan. The reason appears under the figure. The catalog shows the figure but never uses it in a multiplier. How records are judged.

Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Clock frequency cpu provisional 16 MHz Reported Vendor-rated Nominal clock Stated by the vendor Nintendo's AGB programming manual states a rounded 16 MHz CPU figure.
5 documented absences
Game Boy Advance: system figures: documented absences
Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Clock frequency gpu provisional unknown The reviewed manual gives no independent graphics clock. Not stated Vendor-rated Nominal clock Stated by the vendor The AGB Programming Manual states the ARM7TDMI system clock and display timings, but not an independent graphics-clock frequency.
Memory bandwidth memory provisional unknown The reviewed manual gives no memory bandwidth or bus width. Not stated Vendor-rated Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor The AGB Programming Manual documents wait states and DMA behavior but does not state a memory-bus width or a bandwidth figure.
Storage capacity storage provisional not applicable Game cartridges are removable media and their ROM capacity varies by title; no cartridge capacity is part of the base console. Not stated Vendor-rated Design capacity Stated by the vendor
Memory capacity whole-system provisional unknown The handheld's work RAM and video RAM are both known only from tier C material. Adding them would rest a new number on that material, which this catalog does not do. Not stated Vendor-rated Design capacity Stated by the vendor Both terms of the total are rumored. The catalog displays a rumored figure but does not compute with one, so the total waits for a document that states a capacity outright.
Rated power consumption whole-system provisional unknown Nintendo rates an AC-DC adapter for this handheld at 3 V, 300 mA, but it is an accessory bought separately and the machine ships running on two AA cells. A rating for a power source most units never used is not the console’s rated consumption, and Nintendo publishes no figure for the handheld itself. Not stated Vendor-rated Rated power Stated by the vendor Provisional and unknown after checking: the only wattage reachable belongs to an optional accessory rather than to the machine as sold.

Figures for its components

1 documented absence
ARM7TDMI: documented absences
Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Peak FP32 rate cpu provisional not applicable This console CPU has no integrated floating-point execution unit. Not stated Vendor-rated Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor Provisional record for game-boy-advance: the cited primary manual is registered, but its page-level transcription and independent review are still pending.
1 documented absence
Game Boy Advance PPU: documented absences
Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Peak FP32 rate gpu provisional not applicable This is a tile, sprite or scanline graphics unit, not a floating-point processor; it executes no FP32 operations. Not stated Vendor-rated Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor Provisional record for game-boy-advance: the cited primary manual is registered, but its page-level transcription and independent review are still pending.
Game Boy Advance writable RAM

provisional A figure marked provisional is recorded but not accepted: its evidence is unsettled. It may rely on one source, an unconfirmed announcement, or a digit read from a damaged scan. The reason appears under the figure. The catalog shows the figure but never uses it in a multiplier. How records are judged.

Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Memory capacity memory provisional 288 KiB Rumored Vendor-rated Design capacity From community documentation Nintendo's verified AGB manual passage states no internal-RAM capacity. Wikipedia gives 288 KiB, the sum of the handheld's two work-RAM banks, separate from the video RAM beside them, which the catalog records separately.
Game Boy Advance video RAM

provisional A figure marked provisional is recorded but not accepted: its evidence is unsettled. It may rely on one source, an unconfirmed announcement, or a digit read from a damaged scan. The reason appears under the figure. The catalog shows the figure but never uses it in a multiplier. How records are judged.

Metric Value Evidence Basis Method Source
Memory capacity memory provisional 98 KiB Rumored Vendor-rated Design capacity From community documentation Nintendo's verified AGB manual passage states no video-RAM capacity. Wikipedia gives 98 KiB, and its own hardware section says that figure counts the picture processor's video RAM together with the object attribute memory and palette RAM beside it. The capacity is recorded as the infobox states it, and the catalog carries it as rumored until a Nintendo document states it.

Editorial notes

Game Pak ROM is removable storage and remains outside whole-system writable memory.

Sources