Nintendo's 3D-capable handheld game player contains chips manufactured by Toshiba Corp, Fujitsu Ltd and Invensense Inc, technology firm iFixit said after dismantling the hot new gadget.

The 3DS, the first handheld game player to provide glasses-free 3D, launched in Japan on February 26 and is set to hit stores in the United States on March 27.

Nintendo expects to sell 4 million units globally by the end of March, hoping it will outpace even its popular predecessor, the DS.

The flash memory chip was provided by Japan's Toshiba, the world's second-largest NAND chip maker after South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

The CPU was designed by British firm ARM Holdings and the gyroscope was supplied by U.S.-based Invensense, iFixit said on its website.

But California-based iFixit, one of the better-known among so-called teardown firms hired by clients to provide data and competitive intelligence, said it had had unusual trouble identifying the purpose of chips provided by Fujitsu and Texas Instruments.

Nintendo, like other consumer electronics firms, does not reveal where it sources the parts for its products.

We just could not find out what they were, Miroslav Djuric, director of technical communication at iFixit, said in a phone interview.

The manufacturers of the lithium ion battery and the 3D liquid crystal display screen were not immediately identified, though Japan's Sharp Corp showed off small 3D screens for glasses-free use at an event last year.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

South Korea Japan Nintendo Fujitsu