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IBM: WiiU running on Watson's brain. 45nm MultiCore CPU with "lots" of embedded DRAM.

B

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
Shalashaska161 said:
Sounds like a fairly powerful processor. I kinda wished Nintendo showed off a little bit of what the system was capable of. That tech demo looked nice but it's a tech demo, it could really mean anything.
Click to expand...

Pretty much exactly the same approach they took in unveiling the Wii, AFAIK. Tech demos emphasizing the gameplay possibilities of the new system accompanied the announcement. Concrete games came later. They already did more than I expected them to do with the third party confirmations of specific games; I was thinking of a support list and that would be it.

Frankly I don't expect too much more until next E3.
 
M

mj1108

Member
Bert said:
Please put in simple "number of 360s ductaped together" terminology. (WolframAlpha should really include this in their calculation thingy)
Click to expand...

KuGsj.gif
 
M

maeh2k

Member
What do you guys think the size of the console says about its power?

I remember brain_stew talking about power budget, heat, ... wrt the size of the console when the rumor was that it'd be as big as a 360.


Seeing that it's barely bigger than the Wii, should we conclude that they are again aiming for a low-power design? In that case it would be reasonable to assume that they won't aim higher than a 360.
 
B

Bert

Member
scitek said:
The question I have is that now that there will be a more powerful system on the market than the PS360, at least for a year or two, and it's capable of running UE3 and whatnot, will it become the lead platform for multiplatform titles for the remainder of this generation with the PS360 versions being scaled down? Or will it be ported from the PS360 and have exclusive stuff shoe-horned in?
Click to expand...

Not up on multiplatform development, but surely lots of games are down ports from PC, wouldn't you just downport a bit less? Obviously console only games would be different, but for something like BF3 wouldn't that mean WiiU would automatically have the better port?
 
Oppo

Oppo

Member
Oh man, that headline is fairly disgustingly sensational.

There will be morons walking around now really thinking that a Wii U can beat almost any mortal at Jeopardy.
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
maeh2k said:
What do you guys think the size of the console says about its power?

I remember brain_stew talking about power budget, heat, ... wrt the size of the console when the rumor was that it'd be as big as a 360.


Seeing that it's barely bigger than the Wii, should we conclude that they are again aiming for a low-power design? In that case it would be reasonable to assume that they won't aim higher than a 360.
Click to expand...


Well, it doesn't have a built in HDD or likely built in Power Brick, and if it has good active cooling then the size will be fine for what we've heard.
 
S

scy

Member
Bert said:
Please put in simple "number of 360s ductaped together" terminology. (WolframAlpha should really include this in their calculation thingy)
Click to expand...

18.5, though it loses some of that power from poorly done duct taping. With ideal setup and arrangement, it's probably closer to 16.
 
M

Matt

Member
maeh2k said:
What do you guys think the size of the console says about its power?

I remember brain_stew talking about power budget, heat, ... wrt the size of the console when the rumor was that it'd be as big as a 360.


Seeing that it's barely bigger than the Wii, should we conclude that they are again aiming for a low-power design? In that case it would be reasonable to assume that they won't aim higher than a 360.
Click to expand...
It is more powerful then 360. Why don't people get this?
 
B

Bert

Member
maeh2k said:
What do you guys think the size of the console says about its power?

I remember brain_stew talking about power budget, heat, ... wrt the size of the console when the rumor was that it'd be as big as a 360.


Seeing that it's barely bigger than the Wii, should we conclude that they are again aiming for a low-power design? In that case it would be reasonable to assume that they won't aim higher than a 360.
Click to expand...

Do we know that the units shown are functional? I mean could they be empty cases with dev units underneath running stuff and subject to change?
 
S

Shalashaska161

Member
maeh2k said:
What do you guys think the size of the console says about its power?

I remember brain_stew talking about power budget, heat, ... wrt the size of the console when the rumor was that it'd be as big as a 360.


Seeing that it's barely bigger than the Wii, should we conclude that they are again aiming for a low-power design? In that case it would be reasonable to assume that they won't aim higher than a 360.
Click to expand...
Nintendo has shown before with the Gamecube how good they are at cramming parts into a small space. I wouldn't worry about the size of the system too much. Besides it's been confirmed that it's more powerful than the 360.
 
K

Krauser Kat

Member
it had enough horse to do everything UE3 is doing on PS3 360 at really close to 1080p 30fps if not above. probably not 60 though.
 
H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
claviertekky said:
I hope they use the Radeon 5XXX series since the 4 series run a bit hot.
Click to expand...

Well obviously the R800 (Radeon 5xxx series) is even better than R700 (Radeon 4xxx series), but I'm not counting on it. Would be so nice though.
 
M

Mr_Brit

Banned
maeh2k said:
What do you guys think the size of the console says about its power?

I remember brain_stew talking about power budget, heat, ... wrt the size of the console when the rumor was that it'd be as big as a 360.


Seeing that it's barely bigger than the Wii, should we conclude that they are again aiming for a low-power design? In that case it would be reasonable to assume that they won't aim higher than a 360.
Click to expand...
PS3 and 360 shouldn't be used to determine the components in a box since they were the most embarrasingly, patheticly cooled and designed consoles ever made. Anyone who's looked inside a launch 360 or PS3 can see exactly why they have such a high failure rate.
 
L

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
wsippel said:
That "devkit spec sheet"'s most certainly wrong. IBM says it's Watson, Watson's Power7 - not Power6. Huge difference.
Click to expand...
The actual press release from IBM doesn't make any mentions of either "Watson" or the Power 7 specifically. It just says that it's an energy saving Power-based processor with some of their most advanced technology, such as EDRAM. The console is very small, so it's hard to imagine there's going to be some processing monster inside of it like some people are trying to suggest. I doubt Nintendo is going to break laws of physics here. Spec sheet is indeed wrong, as it pegs CPU at 32nm, while the IBM press release says it's 45nm.

Krauser Kat said:
it had enough horse to do everything UE3 is doing on PS3 360 at really close to 1080p 30fps if not above. probably not 60 though.
Click to expand...
This, I think, is realistic expectation.
 
P

Prez

Member
AceBandage said:
Well, it doesn't have a built in HDD or likely built in Power Brick, and if it has good active cooling then the size will be fine for what we've heard.
Click to expand...

Doesn't have the Gamecube controller and memory card ports anymore either and it's as big as the Wii, so there's some extra space there too.
 
A

antonz

Member
USC-fan said:
After reading this. Doesnt look like it will be more powerful but thats okay. Didnt hurt the wii.

Surprise so many were thinking it has going to have great hardware since it such a small box with likely no fan.
Click to expand...
I would give that thread a few days. They just posted the news. everything is all old news speculation in there still.
 
L

Luigi87

Member
So anyone who registers their Wii U that lives in Toronto, will be forced to selected USA as their home country, right?
 
L

Luigi87

Member
It was the only one I could think of on short notice!


Still psyched for this though, but... Well, gonna not think about it, knowing it won't be out until Nov. 2012 likely.
 
K

Kad5

Member
I'm sorry but there must be a stupid virus going around on gaf today.

I'm getting tired of explaining to people that THIS is a NEW CONSOLE and that the system is actually decently powerful.

My fucking god people.
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
Shalashaska161 said:
Oh my. If that's what I can expect from the WiiU then I'm totally fine.
Click to expand...


That's actually probably the low end, since all Zelda tech demos have looked considerably worse than the final product.
 
D

Duderz

Banned
IBM Microprocessors to Power the New Wii U System from Nintendo

ARMONK, N.Y., June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it will provide the microprocessors that will serve as the heart of the new Wii U™ system from Nintendo. Unveiled today at the E3 trade show, Nintendo plans for its new console to hit store shelves in 2012.

The all-new, Power-based microprocessor will pack some of IBM's most advanced technology into an energy-saving silicon package that will power Nintendo's brand new entertainment experience for consumers worldwide. IBM's unique embedded DRAM, for example, is capable of feeding the multi-core processor large chunks of data to make for a smooth entertainment experience.

IBM plans to produce millions of chips for Nintendo featuring IBM Silicon on Insulator (SOI) technology at 45 nanometers (45 billionths of a meter). The custom-designed chips will be made at IBM's state-of-the-art 300mm semiconductor development and manufacturing facility in East Fishkill, N.Y.

The relationship between IBM and Nintendo dates to May 1999, when IBM was selected to design and manufacture the central microprocessor for the Nintendo GameCube™ system. Since 2006, IBM has shipped more than 90 million chips for Nintendo Wii systems.

"IBM has been a terrific partner for many years. We truly value IBM's commitment to support Nintendo in delivering an entirely new kind of gaming and entertainment experience for consumers around the world," said Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director, Integrated Research and Development, at Nintendo Co., Ltd.

"We're very proud to have delivered to Nintendo consistent technology advancements for three generations of entertainment consoles," said Elmer Corbin, director, IBM's custom chip business. "Our relationship with Nintendo underscores our unique position in the industry -- how we work together with clients to help them leverage IBM technology, intellectual property and research to drive innovation into their own core products."

Built on the open, scalable Power Architecture base, IBM custom processors exploit the performance and power advantages of proven silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. The inherent advantages of the technology make it a superior choice for performance-driven applications that demand exceptional, power-efficient processing capability – from entertainment consoles to supercomputers.
Click to expand...

From Beyond3D forums, posted already?
 
R

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
For anyone going nuts on this news ... this is PR speak. The processor design is similar to the cores in Watson. All similarities end there. Watson is a distributed system with 90 IBM Power 750 servers (plus additional I/O, network and cluster controller nodes in 10 racks) - each housing an 8-core 3.5 GHz POWER7 CPU with 4 threads per core.

It's a total of 2880 POWER7 processor cores and 16 Terabytes of RAM :D




claviertekky said:
So if it's from IBM, will that mean it's similar to the architecture of the 360?
Click to expand...
IBM (well, technically STI) made CELL as well as the NGC and Wii CPU's. They have a huge portfolio of architectures as well as do plenty of custom designs. So no, there's no reason to assume it's a similar architecture purely based on the CPU manufacturer.
 
S

Shalashaska161

Member
AceBandage said:
That's actually probably the low end, since all Zelda tech demos have looked considerably worse than the final product.
Click to expand...
No doubt. I doubt Nintendo spent too much time on that demo, so whatever games they actually end up making will look considerably better.
 
D

Dragon

Banned
AceBandage said:
That's actually probably the low end, since all Zelda tech demos have looked considerably worse than the final product.
Click to expand...

Your neverending optimism is commendable even if you don't know anything more than any of us :p.
 
J

JoshuaJSlone

Member
USC-fan said:
After reading this. Doesnt look like it will be more powerful but thats okay. Didnt hurt the wii.

Surprise so many were thinking it has going to have great hardware since it such a small box with likely no fan.
Click to expand...
Why would you think it has no fan? Even Wii has a fan.

And while it is still small, it's also 40% larger than Wii.
 
B

brain_stew

Member
CoffeeJanitor said:
So pretty much the answer to all of this is: we still don't know enough to say anything, but it's at least a little more powerful than the 360 or PS3, right?

I'm bad at this techie stuff so I would appreciate if someone would weigh in here
Click to expand...

If the CPU is indeed a Power7 design then there's no two ways around it, its CPU is a genuine generational leap. Given that, it would be very bizarre if the GPU is not also significant leap forward, the GCN was incredibly well balanced.
 
R

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
maeh2k said:
What do you guys think the size of the console says about its power?

I remember brain_stew talking about power budget, heat, ... wrt the size of the console when the rumor was that it'd be as big as a 360.
Click to expand...
Certainly the GPU will be lacking versus modern PC GPU's.




scitek said:
It'll ship at 45nm. No clue wtf that means.
Click to expand...
Die size at launch.
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
brain_stew said:
If the CPU is indeed a Power7 design then there's no two ways around it, its CPU is a genuine generational leap. Given that, it would be very bizarre if the GPU is not also significant leap forward, the GCN was incredibly well balanced.
Click to expand...


Yup, Nintendo won't bottleneck the CPU with a weak GPU.
We are seeing very early tech demos from Nintendo and PS3/360 versions of multiplatform games.
Come this Fall and Next E3, people are going to be very surprised.
 
G

gofreak

GAF's Bob Woodward
brain_stew said:
If the CPU is indeed a Power7 design then there's no two ways around it, its CPU is a genuine generational leap.
Click to expand...

So it's...what...10, 15, 20 times more powerful than Xenon/Cell?
 
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