64 replies to this topic

[Medu]

We are getting a little OT:
The two aren't really comparable. The main thing that needs to change is the mask which has the chip design imprinted on it- these each cost many millions. Even the smallest change in the chip design will render the mask useless. From a manufacturing PoV whether the chip is Power6/7 or 470 based will have no effect on it's cost. Nintendo will have to pay for new masks anyway.

However, saying that the Xeon processor is a PowerPC chip is like saying the Wii U is going to have the Watson CPU in it

The Xenon chip is a PowerPC based chip, just as the GC and Wii processors are PowerPC based. I believe the name PowerPC, and is now just Power ISA, might have been dropped but chips are still been build using it's instruction set.

[MorbidGod]

The point here my friend is that the Wii U is,not based off the PowerPC line. PowerPC (or Power USA) is based off older POWER processors, while the one in the Wii U is based off the Watson technology. That's what IBM said. So Power PC is based off technology from see POWER processors and Wii U is based.off newer POWER technology. Both are powerful but not really the aame

[10k]

So to sum up:

IBM Power7 based CPU with unknown clock speed, but for sure quad-core
An AMD GPU based off of RV770 architecture (which is a radeon 4830 or something) that can support only directx 10.1 and is 40nm
Six channel audio with support up to 6.1 surround sound
8gb of internal memory, external HDD and USB's are supported
Unknown RAM (rumored to be a GB shared between CPU and GPU which is 2x that of the Xbox/Playstation)
"lots of eDRAM" says IBM, the maximum it can support is 32MB

Off the shelf parts that are close to these rumors?

CPU - 3.0GHz Quad Core with hyper threading and 32MB of eDRAM (a.k.a. L3 cache, which Xbox only has 10) (Nintendo will want to keep cost and heat down, so clocking it below 3.2 is recommended. Keep in mind that even though Xbox is clocked at 3.2 it only has 3 cores. The extra core at 3.0 makes the Wii U processor much faster)

GPU - Radeon 4870 256 mbit GDDR5 Memory (it was manufactured at 55nm, but now that it's round 3.5 years old Nintendo will get it customized at 40nm to make it smaller and create less heat)

RAM - 1GB DDR3 Shared between CPU and GPU

The rest will be motherboard stuff and ports, etc.

[Medu]

MorbidGod: As I said early IBM saying it used watson tech could of meant any number of things and it certainly doesn't limit it to a Power7 core.

Tenkay23: Your parts are far too powerful. A quadcore P7 chip consumes 100watts, as does a 4870 on 40nm(better known as a 5770). That's 200watts JUST from two chips, while the whole Wii used ~18watts.

[10k]

MorbidGod: As I said early IBM saying it used watson tech could of meant any number of things and it certainly doesn't limit it to a Power7 core.

Tenkay23: Your parts are far too powerful. A quadcore P7 chip consumes 100watts, as does a 4870 on 40nm(better known as a 5770). That's 200watts JUST from two chips, while the whole Wii used ~18watts.

Yes buy HD consoles consume 200-300 watts and this thing has to run native 1080p and support streaming to two wii u tablets.