I really think this is why they will bring back the "3rd pillar" strategy, just make a 4inch 540p ipod touch type device, (275dpi) give it 2 shoulder buttons disguised as volume rockers and a dpad or slide pad that clicks like a home button. throwing in another button or 2 on the other side of the display could work if it looked fine, I think the entire diamond input (abxy) could be pulled off. This would be more a VC/BC device, could even play 3DS games possibly. Would come in under $100 and be a single screen device.
They're definitely looking to add form factors. In this case, I think they'll start with a larger tablet-sized device and then shrink it down as time goes on. Take a look at Fujitsu's dual touch resistive screens - I think that's the way to go for 3DS BC and to maintain the cool drawing/art aspect their devices have going on.
The solution to the buttons conundrum is the modular handheld patent which was published earlier this year. Ship the console with an original DS button configuration and launch with a hardcore game that comes with 2 analog stick modules.
Yeah Apple's cores (both Swift and Cyclone) were custom ISA implementations of their own design rather than modified ARM designs.
Nope.
Unless everything is completely identical devs will have to test for both platforms regardless.
The issue I have with the idea about needing the same hardware to ease software development is that it just leads down the same path that they've been on, which is what I think they're ultimately trying to avoid (hopefully/finally). Having software dev tied to hardware forces their hardware choices rather than picking potentially better solutions, not just between portable/console but every future generation. Major changes within the same architecture would screw them too as far as optimizations.
All that I could see Espresso sticking around as a coprocessor of some sort for their next home console too (depending on die shrinks/efficiency/cost), although I'd be surprised if it got used in a portable just cause the tighter tolerances and limited benefit.
What strikes me is Iwata's quote about ground up effort no longer being necessary for each generation. Well, technology is not standing still and they'd have to be absolutely nuts if they think staying with the same hardware components until the end of time is a reasonable proposition. Developing an OS with a thicker abstraction layer (hopefully allowing for some low level calls as well) may be exactly what they need to keep their software pipeline flowing.
You're correct, however, that certain hardware-specific optimizations will probably need to be made either way, such as resolution and input (touch vs Wii Remote? If they can fend off Phillips?). I get the feeling from Miyamoto's comments that not all games will be cross compatible, so a recompile will be a fairly insignificant step.
From what I've been reading, having a single ISA is relatively low on the list of important things to devs. Devs have been going back and forth between ARM, x86, and Power for years. What Nintendo need to do, and what Takeda indicates they will slowly do, is to better integrate their tools and libraries with industry standard development environments, which I take to mean Visual Studio.
That and they need more robust SIMD on the CPU. Those two things seem to be the major issues for devs this cycle.
Not sure why your quote showed up twice, I'll edit that... odd...
Anyway, I'm not confident Nintendo will use ARM cores in their next home console and they are aiming at software compatability between their next console and handheld. The 20nm GPU products from both AMD and NVIDIA have been delayed time and again, presumable due to production difficulties. Since a 20nm APU would need these 20nm AMD cores and Nintendo refuses to use processes that aren't mature there's hardly any real chance they'll go 20nm.
I think 20nm is a reasonable guess, in part because the amount of on-die SRAM they require will take up too much space on 28nm. 20nm products are shipping this year. If Nintendo go the semi-custom route (and it appears they have, as AMD are not licensing GCN cores for "full custom" designs), they'll be pretty much forced to keep up a bit more with the flow of technology. The timing was odd this generation, and they were dealing with Renesas, who were getting out of the fab business. Look back to Gamecube and Wii - Nintendo were using current nodes at those launches.