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
A Game Boy Advance in Indigo, one of the launch colors, with the original unlit screen. The screen is off.
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 | — | 96 KiB |
Figures for the whole machine
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
| 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
| 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
| 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. |
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. |
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 | 96 KiB | Reported | Vendor-rated | Design capacity Stated by the vendor The manual's broad display-memory diagram includes palette and object-attribute memory. Its memory map isolates the video-RAM pool measured here. |
Editorial notes
Game Pak ROM is removable storage and remains outside whole-system writable memory.