Marvell is an ARM licensee so their CPUs are of ARM design and fully compatible. ARM doesn't actually make CPUs they just design the architecture, CPUs based on ARM designs are in like 90% of hand-held devices and are manufactured by numerous companies.

So yea a Marvell CPU would be a newer ARM processor and would be fully backwards compatible.

well that makes perfect sense then, didn't know the armada was an arm processor

Marvell CPU = ARM

ARM designs are a commodity and nearly universal in mobile devices, so one vendor's ARM derivative is the same as the next.

EDIT: I see you already know.

haha my tortoise like pace has beaten your mammal based speed...

Oh, the CPU matters, and visual proof--while a good measure, which I pointed out elsewhere, like two weeks ago--is not guaranteed proof.  Especially these days with CPU and GPU being different hardware, rather than everything running off the CPU like "back in the day."  For instance, the TurboGrafx-16 was an 8-bit CPU, but featured a 16-bit graphics processor.  However, the 8-bit CPU created a wall of limitations to the games that weren't found in titles on the Genesis or SNES. 

The CPU matters for another reason--is it easy to work with?  Take the 5th generation:  The Saturn, N64, and Playstation.  Of those three, the Saturn was considered the hardest to work with--by a long shot--due to it's overly complex motherboard.  The N64 was also notoriously difficult to develop for, and to add insult to injury, was also the most expensive to develop and publish games for--by a long shot. The Playstation, on the other hand, was very developer-friendly and reportedly extremely easy to work with for game development. 

The GPU of the 3DS is clearly very powerful, but then again, it has  to be to support 3-D graphics.  Now, will the CPU be powerful enough to properly supplement the graphics processor, or is this where Nintendo is cutting cost corners to keep the 3DS affordable?  Are we going to have pretty graphics, but painfully small levels? 

Anyway, we're not going to really know anything about the specifics of either the GPU or CPU, aside from leaked rumored numbers since Nintendo, typically, sits on the specifics of their hardware and tells us next to nothing about it.

Proper names like the 3DS don't change from language to launguage.    Nor would DS3 make any sense as the "3D" in 3DS refernces 3D as in the 3rd dimension.  Even in the reverse syntax of Spanish, it would be closer to D3S (reversed juxtoposition of 3rd and dimension).  The "S" in DS was known as "system"...Developer's System".  Technically, it had 2 internal names - Developer's System and Dual Screen.  If the S is carried over from DS to 3DS, the name would be 3D System.  And again in Spanish, DS3 would not make sense.

But again the point is moot considering proper names of that sort...products specifically, don't change based on language.   The DS Lite is the DS Lite regardless of the language.   The 3DS will be the 3DS regardless of language.

You got me on that one... Now that I think of it you are right... ;) 

There were demos available at E3 which already showed what the 3DS is capable of. The only value that customers have in knowing the CPU now is simply just a point of interest to a few; although it can be used in the market against Nintendo as well since mobile phones will soon have 2GHz CPUs (which the 3DS most certainly does not have), but are probably not going to be as capable as the 3DS graphically. The number can be used as "Well 2000MHz is greater than 400MHz" to kill hype on the system, even though the 400MHz system will have much better looking and playing games; it would be a stupid idea to do that in the pre-launch hype.

I should also add that the top mobile phones run Android and have processors in excess off 1.2GHz, but the best looking games aren't as good looking as even some early DS games; the DS has a 66MHz CPU and doesn't display projected 3D as the 3DS does. Why give a number out that can be used against them? What is the logic in that?

Interestig rumor, but as many others said previously, JUST RELEASE THAT DAMN THING ALREADY, NINTENDO! (I have 24000 points/Yen on my Yamada Denki's point card, just waiting to be used!)