K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
What does SoC mean? I've been playing games for 25 years and have been on this forum for ten and have never heard that term, lol.
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Nintendo looking for Lead Graphic Engineer for Next-Gen Console SoC in Redmond
- Thread starter BY2K
- Start date
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To be honest, after both Wii and WiiU I no longer get excited about new Nintendo hardware at all, after the wii and wiiU. I mean, I will absolutely buy it 100%, because its all about the games, and nintendo happens to be my taste in gaming, but In the past, I used to be hyped as fuck, eagerly awaiting the arrival of new hardware as Nintendo slowly gave small tidbits of it years before release. Nowadays this news does nothing to me.
TheMoon
Member
GCN was NTD in Redmond as well. Hell, they had Factor 5 working on the HW!
System on a Chip.
openrob
Member
System on a Chip
Edit: beaten
"SoC" is an abbreviation for "system on a chip."
Edit: beaten
"SoC" is an abbreviation for "system on a chip."
http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/how-nintendo-3ds-made/1/0Iwata said:
Graphics Horse
Member
I think some of the things lined up in the job description could be for future projects beyond the next one, which could be iterations of the new tech but with perhaps a different gpu vendor, similar to how different Android systems have different gpu vendors.
K
kittens
Unconfirmed Member
I could say that since they are using the same architecture and probably the same SoC for both home and portable consoles the "low power" is only to be sure that works in a small TDP environment...
...but then again it's Nintendo so it'll be the same old cheap crap.
Also lol at the evangelist stuff... that means they'll go with weird api and functions again.
You will never learn Nintendo will you?
comedy bomb
Banned
Where the hell is QOL?
Basically they put the CPU and GPU on the same die (piece of silicon) to save money, and it often lets them interface with each other faster as well.
Historically this wasn't done as the CPU and GPU generated too much heat individually so putting them on the same die would cause huge heat issues. They would also usually be too big to get good yields.
As laptops and later smartphones/tablets became popular, the concern for lowering power usage (as in wattage) and chip size grew, so SoCs are now more feasible for a lot of devices.
If they plan to use relatively new mobile parts in their next handheld, they would have a ton of options these days compared to previous generations, and could settle on one quite late in the process.
There's Qualcomm, NVIDIA, AMD, or putting together their own via ARM + PowerVR or a similar combination. Intel is also trying to get into this market.
Eolz
Member
Whoops, forgot about that. Thought it was mainly N64 people moving to Japan.
True, that makes sense, especially given Iwata's recent hints regarding the architecture of future consoles. They make a lot of prototypes anyway, if the next console doesn't sell
and Iwata goes away
Edit:
I'm pretty sure this is also because once again, they'd like some custom stuff. Not necessarily as much as before, but it's always useful, especially if they work with chip manufacturers on this.
Chezzymann
Member
So this is probably for the Wii U successor then?
Most vendors even go so far as to offer IP licenses if you want to customize their chips internally or integrate them with other vendors' parts in a relationship that doesn't already exist, but I imagine they're going to have the vendor do it for them given they're not Apple or an OEM themselves like Qualcomm or NVIDIA licensing ARM CPUs.
Well, it's certainly good that they have someone on the ground in the country where a lot of these chips are designed and can easily communicate to them what they want.
It probably suggests they're not going to pick a dark horse parts vendor from Japan for the next handheld like they did with the 3DS's GPU.
Vanillalite
Ask me about the GAF Notebook
I use to be on this train of thought, but I really think it depends on how many more games they think they can push out for the NEW Nintendo 3DS. I mean we don't even have a date for that thing in EU/NA (Australia is an exception for the West).
TAS
Member
Hnnnnnghhhhhhhhhhh. Wii 4 U and Me confirmedd! The "4" is for 4k graphics. But jokes aside, it's usual that when a company releases their latest home console, they literally start working on the next one right away so this should not be surprising. But it's exciting the requirements asked there anyways.
Dictator93
Member
"Wii U Too" on the way?
It shouldn't, there's a lot of reason to believe nintendo might try an integrated home/mobile solution, and low power is very much a part of handhelds.
anexanhume
Member
As others have said, it means "System on a chip." In practice, it means when other functions are integrated onto the same die as the central processing unit, such as memory controllers, image processors, graphics processors and other I/O interfaces.
This job listing is interesting with AMD's recent announcement of another semi-custom design win. Big question will be if Nintendo is going x86 or staying POWER architecture. I assume AMD could do either for them.
Depends if AMD is building them an x86 core or POWER core.
R
Rösti
Unconfirmed Member
Correct. I wouldn't be surprised though if this particular job posting concerns that console for emerging markets they have talked about a bit. I would assume they already have the architecture for the Wii U successor pretty much locked down, unless they are planning something really special for the Wii U in 2015, hardware wise.
Graphics Horse
Member
Asia has been increasingly non-competitive in SoC design. I think they finally realized that. You can squeeze way more out of newer ARM chips for much less than what they spent on 3DS's or Wii U's SoC. Most of the big ARM customizers (AMD, Nvidia, Intel, Qualcomm) are located in the US so there's a lot of concentrated talent and business partners.
As I just wrote, this is probably just a replacement for Tat Iwamoto who left in June. Whatever they're currently working on is already well underway, Nintendo selected an as-of-yet undisclosed vendor for their next SoC in late 2013 or early 2014. Their current engineering leads have ties to Nvidia and Qualcomm - not that this necessarily means much...
What kind of hardware would a handheld need for Nintendo's Wii U developers to essentially be able to make a seamless switch to the handheld? Because it seems like that's what Iwata is looking for based on his previous comments. Not just a home console that could "accept" Wii U architecture but a handheld as well.
R
Rösti
Unconfirmed Member
What I was thinking. This doesn't have to mean that the architect will start work immediately after joining Nintendo, he/she could assume a similar role until heavier duties must be carried out.
And yeah, what wsippel wrote.
Graphics Horse
Member
Interesting
And yeah here is Microsoft hiring a bunch of hardware architects less than 2 years before the Xbone's public reveal.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=423724
SatoAilDarko
Member
This would be the greatest console name ever.
I rather they don't bother with backwards compatibility if they can make it more powerful by avoiding it.
Also backwards compatibility would require Gamepad support in quite a few cases and while I love it Nintendo should not keep the streaming tech in if it costs more.
Wii backwards compatibility was fairly useless considering how cheap Wii's were though at least it provided a way to play Wii games through HDMI that wasn't a third-party dongle.
It also encourages purchases of Wii U's.
I hope they include Wii Remote and Pro Controller support though.
Hopefully the way of vitality sensor
John Harker
Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
I'm surprised they are only hiring for this now.
Seems behind their traditional curve no?
Eolz
Member
Here's what I was talking about, you were probably the original poster for this too
I've been actually only buying/playing games from eShop lately.
I guess that's why they're looking for a guy to take care of it.
Objectively Bad Opinion
Member
It was implied that those wins or at least one of them weren't for gaming, if I'm recalling the wording correctly.
Still there's very little doubt they'll go full AMD, reducing the amount of companies with their hands in the pie gets them better and better prices, and AMD can no doubt meet all their needs for an SoC same as they did Microsoft and Sony. If not wholly AMD, then wholly some other company.
Maybe they want someone who can work closely with western game developers.
Graphics Horse
Member
Have you seen Roujin Z? It's that.
Reallink
Member
Cool and quiet really worked out for the Wii U. There are so many next-gen ports powered by cool and quiet I'm drowning in them. The Wii too, that sure was a great audience to be targeting. They really stuck around and spent a lot of money on the vidya games. Lets make another cool and quiet console, it's sure to be a success.
Didn't CEO Lisa Su say that those two semi-custom designs were not gaming?