New Switch Back of Cart Serial Format

[rarenight]

FYI, Nintendo just introduced a new serial format for the back-of-cart serials in their latest-produced Switch carts. This is a simple informational topic for anyone working on Switch. Thanks to @Prominos and @ppltoast for working this out with me on Discord. FYI @BumpFi @SonGoku @jhmiller @ChuckD


Old-style Serials:
Zelda Echoes of Wisdom Rev 1:
BDGEA08X001
11112334555
1 = Product Code (BDGE)
2 = Build (A)
3 = ??? (08)
4 = Chip Manufacturer (X = Lapis)
5 = Revision (001 = Rev 1)


New-style Serials:
Zelda Echoes of Wisdom Rev 1:
BDGEA60A014YF
1111233455678
1 = Product code (BDGE)
2 = Build (A)
3 = ??? (60)
4 = Chip Manufacturer (A = Macronix)
5 = Revision (01 = Rev 1)
6 = Manufacturing Year (4 = 2024)
7 = Manufacturing Month (Y = November)
8 = Manufacturing Day? (F = 15th?)


For reference:

Chip Manufacturers:
A = Macronix
B = Macronix
S = ???
X = Lapis
Y = Lapis

Manufacturing Years:
4 = 2024
5 = 2025
6 = 2026

Manufacturing Months:
1 = January
2 = February
3 = March
4 = April
5 = May
6 = June
7 = July
8 = August
9 = September
X = October
Y = November
Z = December

Manufacturing Days (not confirmed until we have more evidence):

Given the evidence of a cart serial like "AXSEAX0A004ZY", we do know it can't be 1-9 then A-Z because that would make a "Y" as the 34th day of the month (impossible). It can't also be straight A-Z because that would run out of letters by the 26th of the month.

Maybe Nintendo uses some kind of truncated system for Manufacturing Days, where it goes 1-9 for 1st-9th, then A-S for 10th-28th, then X-Z for 29th-31st. Pure speculation on my part though.

If we are incorrect about any of these details I'll make additional updates on this thread. Just thought you all should be aware.

[rarenight]

Note, my Switch cart submission tool: https://github.com/rarenight/no-intro-s ... ssion-tool will need to be updated to support this new format.