Neimod and others over at 3dbrew.org are collecting donations for a decap of the custom Nintendo SoC (System-On-a-Chip) from a retail 3DS. The goal is to extract the boot code and other proprietary information. Quote: 'We have gotten a price quote from a professional lab on the deal (removal, decap, delayer, SEM imaging) and it came out to $400 per layer of the chip, which they estimate will come to about $2000 total. Plus the cost of the 3DS we will be donating for the hardware sample(s). The numbers of layers is approximate because they likely don't know how many layers are in the SoC until they actually decap it. In the worst case we estimate between 8 or 10 layers. For now we're trying to reach their initial quote of $2000 USD and send in the 3DS to get it started. Later on we can still decide to have the remaining layers imaged. You will have the noble honor of helping the 3DS community progress forward. We're also considering giving contributors a copy of the images produced as thanks.

http://www.eurasia.nu/modules.php?na...ticle&sid=3102