Wii system software
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The Wii Menu
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| Developer | Nintendo |
|---|---|
| OS family | Nintendo proprietary |
| Working state | Discontinued |
| Source model | Closed source |
| Initial release | 1.0 / November 19, 2006 |
| Latest release | 4.3 / September 7, 2010 |
| Available in | German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Korean, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese |
| Update method | Direct Download Game Disc |
| Platforms |
Wii Wii Mini |
| Preceded by | GameCube |
| Succeeded by | Wii U (system software) |
The Wii system software is a set of updatable firmware versions, and a software frontend on the Wii video game console. Updates, which are downloaded via the system's Internet connection (WiiConnect24), allow Nintendo to add additional features and software. When a new update becomes available, Nintendo sends a message to connected systems notifying them of the available update.
Several game discs, both first-party and third-party games, have included system software updates so that players who are not connected to the Internet can still update their system. Additionally this can "force" an upgrade by requiring the player to perform the update, without which the new game cannot be played. Some online games (such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii) have come with specific extra updates, such as being able to receive posts from game-specific addresses, so, regardless of the version of the installed software, it will install an update.
The Wii's firmware is in the form of IOSes (thought by the Wii homebrew developers to stand for "Input Output Systems" or "Internal Operating Systems" and not to be confused with "iOS", the operating system of Apple's iPhones and iPads), which run on a separate ARM architecture processor to other Wii software (nicknamed Starlet by the Wii homebrew community, as it is physically located inside the graphics chip, the Hollywood, so it is a small part of Hollywood. The patent for the Wii U indicates a similar device which is simply named "Input/Output Processor"). These control input and output between the code running on the main processor (the PowerPC "Broadway" processor) and the Wii's hardware features that did not exist on the GameCube, which can only be accessed via the ARM.
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