This is about the Wiis secondary CPU, the ARM9 core sitting on the Hollywood DIE. I believe the official name is Vegas, wiibrew calls it "Starlet". It seems to be some sort of I/O-controller, as it handles Wii specific stuf like Bluetooth, networking and decryption, and it runs it's own, seemingly updateable operating system called IOS.
As far as I understand, the Wii doesn't actually run an operating system in the background, the machine basically resets when you start a game. The "OS" is part of the games. But the IOS always runs in the background, and only unloads if you run Gamecube games.
Is there a way for devs to directly access Vegas? Is the screen you see when you hit the home button during a game part of the IOS? Would it be possible for Nintendo to implement stuff like voicechat or messaging on the ARM core? To implement voicechat on a system level, so that it would work with any game, even titles already released? If stuff like that wouldn't work, why did Nintendo choose a general purpose CPU running it's own OS? Any other infos about that chip?
As far as I understand, the Wii doesn't actually run an operating system in the background, the machine basically resets when you start a game. The "OS" is part of the games. But the IOS always runs in the background, and only unloads if you run Gamecube games.
Is there a way for devs to directly access Vegas? Is the screen you see when you hit the home button during a game part of the IOS? Would it be possible for Nintendo to implement stuff like voicechat or messaging on the ARM core? To implement voicechat on a system level, so that it would work with any game, even titles already released? If stuff like that wouldn't work, why did Nintendo choose a general purpose CPU running it's own OS? Any other infos about that chip?
