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[blu]

Very poorly.

The original question was sufficiently broad so that a meaningful response would take way more than just two words.

krizzx, it really depends on what power envelope you're looking at. At the very entrey level (several hundred milliwatts or so), ARM are pretty much uncontested. We're talking ARMv4 - ARMv6 and ARMv7-M here. Basically old-to-present gen handheld stuff (GBA, NDS, 3DS) and microcontrollers. I don't think a next-gen nintendo handheld will be using any of those ARMs, though. We're fairly confidently looking at ARMv7-A (the application-level architecture profile) as a mininmum for the next nintendo handheld. And there PPC has what to offer. For instance, I'd take an PPC e300 (basically a 603e) over any CortexA8 any day of the week, no questions asked. The Cortex might be hitting higher clocks, but the e300's pipeline is superior in every way. But if we moved up to A7 (CortexA9's successor) things would get fairly blurry. So it really is more of a tie.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Is there anything comparable today running a non ARM processor?

Perhaps a tablet or netbook of some kind that we could use as a basis for what you could expect a mobile Nintendo device equipped with a Power CPU to provide, performance/energy wise?

 

[ArchangelWest]

Two days after it is pondered, what the processor might be like in the next Nintendo hand held, the next Nintendo hand held is announced. A cool synchronicity!

 

[DonMigs85]

Two days after it is pondered, what the processor might be like in the next Nintendo hand held, the next Nintendo hand held is announced. A cool synchronicity!

It's not the true next-gen successor though.
If they stick with ARM for the next one it'll probably use Cortex A7 or hopefully Cortex A12 or even A53.

 

[BeatResetsTheWorld]

Two days after it is pondered, what the processor might be like in the next Nintendo hand held, the next Nintendo hand held is announced. A cool synchronicity!

It's a stop gap. Definitely not the next gen handheld (more akin to the GBC than GBA)

 

[Nostremitus]

Two days after it is pondered, what the processor might be like in the next Nintendo hand held, the next Nintendo hand held is announced. A cool synchronicity!

It's basically the 3DSi, not the next handheld, really...

beaten: bad

 

[krizzx]

I wonder. If Nintendo keeps this family of CPU for their next console, what type of upgrades will be likely?

I could see it going 9 or 12 core with some other upgrades. I wonder where that would put it compared to jaguar and bobcat.

 

[ArchangelWest]

You know, for the sake of the old power draw discussion, it would be awesome if someone with the means could get a figure from the Wii U while playing Smash with 2 gamecube adapters and 8 GC controllers in an 8 player match. Smash Bros is most likely the most demanding game the system has so far.