It doesn't make savestates (in the emulation sense of the word); it manages save-RAM, the same as the CD system and TurboBooster Plus did.
It also has the option to break out the saves into their own individual files instead of one large file with all the saves in it like the internal backup.
Wow, that alone is pretty nice. If you put a Tennokoe in there I'm assuming it'll let you backup the whole thing and then pick or choose saves to backup?
I want to say they said if you use a Tennokoe you have to use the older full file backup to be able to transfer, good for getting to your old saves. Once you have saves in individual files you can probably just pull them off the SDcard where they are stored and back them up anywhere you want (and share I am hoping) which would be better for backup purposed i think.
Edit:
This is what they said about Tennokoe
"If you don't have the per game saves selected, the save data will be read and written to a file named backup.bup, so you have all the saves in a block, as if you had a normal super cdrom/IFU. Just insert your ten no koe card and transfer the saves to the cd backup ram."