Switch systems apparently come with an internal NES emulator

[Zkuq]

Pemalite said:

Zkuq said:

A hardware emulator costs money, so I can't see Switch having one.

The CPU in the NES has 3,500-4,500 transistors.

I would assume the GPU is in a similar range of only "thousands" of transistors.
Today we have chips with Billions of transistors.

It's cost would be pretty insignificant if it was included in any modern SoC.

But you are right, it's highly doubtful the Switch has one, it's SoC is almost a direct clone of Tegra, there is no "secret sauce".

I know they're in an entirely different league. Still, it would have to be designed and production set up for it, which would take money. It's probably not a lot of money, but should be enough for Nintendo to prefer to not pay it. Also, it would add more overall complexity to Switch. Considering the (assumed) ease of software emulation, hardware emulation ought to be vastly inferior in Nintendo's eyes. I should probably look into how difficult exactly it is to emulate the NES, writing an emulator for it might be an interesting exercise project...