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[ziran]

Came across these Press Releases:

MoSys

MoSys' 1T-SRAM(R) Embedded Memory Technology Enables Nintendo's Next Leap in Video Games; High Performance, High Density 1T-SRAM Powers Upcoming Wii Home Game Console

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 19, 2006--

MoSys, Inc. (Nasdaq:MOSY), the industry's leading provider of high-density system-on-chip (SoC) embedded memory solutions, today announced that Nintendo's upcoming Wii(TM) video game console uses MoSys' patented 1T-SRAM technology to implement the very high performance memory within the Wii console's graphics system.

This is the latest result from the more than six-years-long technical collaboration between the two companies. Previous generations of MoSys' 1T-SRAM technology were incorporated in Nintendo's earlier game console, the Nintendo GameCube(TM), in 1999, and shipped in multi-million quantities. The newest 1T-SRAM implementations embedded within the Wii console are fabricated using NEC Electronics' advanced 90nm CMOS-compatible embedded DRAM process technology. These high speed and ultra low latency memories are used as the main embedded memory on the graphics chip and in an additional external memory chip.

"We are pleased that Nintendo has again chosen our 1T-SRAM to power their latest generation game console," said Chet Silvestri, chief executive officer at MoSys, Inc.

"Designing the Wii console required an incredible list of breakthroughs in technology and innovation. The performance delivered by MoSys' 1T-SRAM technology is an important element of our solution," said Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director, General Manager, Integrated Research & Development Division at Nintendo. "The graphic performance of Wii benefits from MoSys' ability to develop highly innovative and dependable embedded memory products."

NEC

Nintendo's New Wii(TM) Video Game Console Uses NEC Electronics' Embedded DRAM

KAWASAKI, Japan, SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 19, 2006

NEC Electronics today announced that Nintendo Co., Ltd. has selected NEC Electronics' 90-nanometer (nm) CMOS-compatible embedded DRAM (eDRAM) technology for WiiTM, its innovative new video game console. Designed to provide advanced graphics functions for this new gaming platform, the new system LSI chips with eDRAM will be manufactured using advanced technologies on NEC Yamagata's 300-millimeter (mm) production lines.

Embedded DRAM technology integrates DRAM on the same chip with logic circuits, and is viewed as an optimal solution for three-dimensional (3D) graphics acceleration systems and other applications that need to process high bandwidth data using low power. In the past, the integration of an eDRAM structure with a standard CMOS process proved challenging. NEC Electronics achieved its fully CMOS-compatible eDRAM technology by integrating a metal-insulator-metal 2 (MIM2) stacked DRAM capacitor on the company's standard CMOS process.

NEC Electronics first introduced MIM2 technology on 90 nm eDRAM in 2005, and volume production started that same year. The technology requires a material with a high dielectric constant to be placed between two electrodes, and a large charge to be maintained on the capacitor with low leakage and a small cell size. NEC Electronics has achieved this by 1) using a MIM structure for the electrodes in the DRAM cell to achieve lower resistance values and higher data processing speeds, 2) using cobalt-silicide (CoSi) DRAM cell transistors to increase driving performance, and 3) using zirconium-oxide (ZrO2) in the capacitance layer (ahead of other vendors) to increase capacitance of the unit area. These and other breakthroughs have allowed NEC Electronics to develop eDRAM chips using its most advanced 90 nm process and to secure its roadmap to 55 nm eDRAM and beyond.

Available now with NEC Electronics' unique 90 nm CMOS-compatible eDRAM process, the ASICs deliver significant advantages that promise to continue along the technological roadmap toward 55 nm processes and beyond.

NEC Electronics selected MoSys® as the DRAM macro design partner for the Wii devices because MoSys is experienced in implementing 1T-SRAM® macros on NEC Electronics' eDRAM process. MoSys designed the circuits and layout of high-speed 1T-SRAM macros on NEC Electronics' 90 nm CMOS-compatible eDRAM technology.

The adoption of these eDRAM ASICs for Nintendo's new game console is a clear vote of confidence in NEC Electronics' eDRAM technology. The company is committed to delivering more value-added features to spur the adoption of its CMOS-compatible eDRAM solutions across a wide range of applications.

I think it's confirmation of info already revealed. Are there any tech savvy people who could explain what this means, thanks.

In addition from Gamasutra:
NEC Predicts Profits On Wii Chip Orders

A new report from news agency Bloomberg indicates that Japan-based electronics manufacturer (and former console hardware creator) NEC Electronics has forecast its first operating profit in more than a year, based on orders for semiconductors used in consumer electronics including the Nintendo Wii.

NEC was last profitable in the quarter ended March 2005, but now forecasts an operating profit of 5 billion yen ($44 million) for the year ending March 2007, compared with a 35.7 billion yen loss for the year previous.

NEC Electronics CEO Toshio Nakashima confirmed in late April during the company's annual earnings announcement that it entered into an agreement with Nintendo to produce large-scale integration chips (LSIs) for the upcoming Wii console. Nakashima noted in the call that NEC had begun plans to upgrade the production capacity at NEC's Yamagata factory to keep up with Nintendo's demand for the chips, with the improvements scheduled to be completed by September.

In an earlier sign of support for the Wii, NEC also confirmed in March at GDC that it had partnered, alongside partner Hudsonsoft, with Nintendo to offer TurboGrafx-16 video games for download over the upcoming Wii's Virtual console.

According to the Bloomberg report, NEC Electronics is projecting a return to profit as it focuses on semiconductors that can be used in more devices, while the company continues to focus on lowering production and development costs.

 

[Panajev2001a]

.

Seriously, thanks for the post though .


They are basically using upgraded (at least they are both made in 90 nm technoogy and the implementation is naturally improved over the one used for the GCN) versions of the same memory (by the same two manufacturers, even the e-DRAM is 1-T SRAM based) used in the GCN. I do not think we are talking, for either the main RAM or the GPU e-DRAM, about any Direct RAMBUS DRAM to XDR DRAM kind of technological leap though.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

we all knew the partners already I wish we knew for sure how much ram this puppy would finally get

 

[Nightbringer]

1T-SRAM instead of 1T-SRAM-Q?

:_____(((((((((((

 

[Nerevar]

Is 1T-SRAM really static? I mean, it uses a capacitor to hold the state, right? How do they get away with calling it "SRAM" if it has to be refreshed like DRAM? Just marketing speak?

 

[Panajev2001a]

1T-SRAM instead of 1T-SRAM-Q?

:_____(((((((((((

Previous generations of MoSys' 1T-SRAM technology were incorporated in Nintendo's earlier game console, the Nintendo GameCube(TM), in 1999, and shipped in multi-million quantities. The newest 1T-SRAM implementations embedded within the Wii console are fabricated using NEC Electronics' advanced 90nm CMOS-compatible embedded DRAM process technology.

To be fair they are not using the same physical cells, but 1-T SRAM technology scaled for the 0 nm node so even if it is not a huge change it should still have more bandwidth with very comparable latency to GCN's 1-T SRAM implementation (maybe lower too, it depends).

 

[Nightbringer]

To be fair they are not using the same physical cells, but 1-T SRAM technology scaled for the 0 nm node so even if it is not a huge change it should still have more bandwidth with very comparable latency to GCN's 1-T SRAM implementation (maybe lower too, it depends).

1T-SRAM con go between 64 and 512bits.

 

[Vaandaviii]

It's clearer and clearer that Wii is going to be a console with a superset of gamecube's hardware.

 

[Xdrive05]

It's clearer and clearer that Wii is going to be a console with a superset of gamecube's hardware.

Hasn't Nintendo been saying all along (for several years now) that they were extremely pleased in the GCN chipset (hinting that they would want to use it in the future or something)? I seem to remember that from waaaay back.

Also, that's one reason why a lot of people figured that the GBA-2 would simply be a portable Gamecube.

 

[Nightbringer]

It's clearer and clearer that Wii is going to be a console with a superset of gamecube's hardware.

With the Flipper Graphics Library we have more FX than Flipper GPU can do in one pass and some of them cannot be done without the help of Gekko, I am sure that Hollywood is "all the Flipper FX+FSAA in one pass" GPU with improvements like more eDRAM memory, better color support and new graphical FX.

In other words, a superset of Gamecube hardware.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Is 1T-SRAM really static? I mean, it uses a capacitor to hold the state, right? How do they get away with calling it "SRAM" if it has to be refreshed like DRAM? Just marketing speak?

Yeah, mostly marketing speak, although it does have near-SRAM level latency IIRC.

 

[Shorty]

Why is this bad news? I always thought 1T-SRAM is something really fast

 

[Halcyon-banned]

Is 1T-SRAM really static? I mean, it uses a capacitor to hold the state, right? How do they get away with calling it "SRAM" if it has to be refreshed like DRAM? Just marketing speak?

They call it 1T-SRAM because even though it is DRAM the performance is comparable to SRAM, but with only 1 transistor instead of the the regular 6 for SRAM, hence lower densities.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Why is this bad news?

Who says it is?

 

[Mr.Ressetti]

I didn't understand a word :S

Is this good or bad ?

 

[vantastic]

I didn't understand a word :S

Is this good or bad ?

gamecube turbo

 

[wsippel]

1T-SRAM instead of 1T-SRAM-Q?

:_____(((((((((((

MoSys always uses the term "1T-SRAM". Even for 1T-SRAM-Q. If Nintendo really uses the latest iteration, it probably is error-corrected (TEC), Multibank, 1T-SRAM-Q...

Should be very, very fast - twice as fast compared to regular eDRAM, according to MoSys.

 

[tanasten]

If the thing worked so well on the cube, why not using on the Wii?

Really, Nintendo dropped the ball on the graphics side.

Now, it's all about design and gameplay.

 

[Shiggy]

Really, Nintendo dropped the ball on the graphics side.

I think you'll be quite surprised with what the Wii will deliver. Just wait a few months, then you'll see

 

[NEC Avenue]

According to NEC's eDRAM process roadmap (in green), they will be moving directly to 55nm and skipping 65nm altogether for the next shrink for the Hollywood GPU from 90nm. This brings up the question of whether the eDRAM portion of the GPU in the Xbox360 will also skip 65nm and go straight to 55nm like in Wii.

 

[DeathbyVolcano]

I think you'll be quite surprised with what the Wii will deliver. Just wait a few months, then you'll see

Naw, I think we pretty much know what's going dwon for the system.

 

[wreckml]

Naw, I think we pretty much know what's going dwon for the system.

yep, unfortunately... D:

I think we may see some small improvements in some areas over what we saw at E3 vs what we will see at launch, but nothing spectacular.

 

[ant1532]

http://wii.ign.com/articles/713/713262p1.html

June 19, 2006 - NEC Electronics announced today that Nintendo has selected the company to provide 90-nanometer CMOS-compatible embedded DRAM technology for the forthcoming Wii console. The new LSI chips with eDRAM will be manufactured on NEC's 300-millimeter production line at Yamagata. While no clock speeds or really juicy info was included in the release, the news does bring up a variety of interesting points.

The official announcement does not come as a great surprise, as NEC and Nintendo have worked closely in the past. NEC provided the eDRAM graphics LSI chips for the GameCube, which it manufactured at its plant in Kyushu, and has also agreed to allow Nintendo to feature classic NEC TurboGrafx-16 games via the Wii's Virtual Console capability.


Separating a logic (graphics) chip from memory results in narrow bandwidth.


eDRAM integrates DRAM with logic circuits in a single chip, which is an ideal configuration for graphic acceleration applications that require high data bandwidth. NEC has achieved excellent results in manufacturing such chips by integrating "metal-insulator-metal 2 (MIM2) stacked DRAM capacitors" in the company's standard CMOS process.


Embedding RAM is much better.


NEC first brought this MIM2 technology to market in 2005 on 90nm eDRAM. The company achieved this breakthrough via a number of advances, including "1) using a MIM structure for the electrodes in the DRAM cell to achieve lower resistance values and higher data processing speeds, 2) using cobalt-silicide (CoSi) DRAM cell transistors to increase driving performance, and 3) using zirconium-oxide (ZrO2) in the capacitance layer (ahead of other vendors) to increase capacitance of the unit area."

NEC is promising to press forward in developing their eDRAM technology to make the move from 90nm processed chips to 55nm in the near future. While the Wii will be making use of the 90nm technology, the potential for future manufacturing advances of the NEC supplied chips may eventually result in even more efficient and smaller chipsets for the Wii down the line.


NEC's roadmap towards 55nm eDRAM.



NEC also revealed that it has selected MoSys as the DRAM macro design partner for the "Wii devices," due to the fact that MoSys is quite familiar with implementing 1T-SRAM macros on NEC's eDRAM process. The 1T-SRAM technology is the product or more than six years of technical collaboration between Nintendo and MoSys. Previous generations of the technology were incorporated in the GameCube.

MoSys memory will be used as the main embedded memory on the Wii's graphics chip and in an "additional external memory chip." Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director and General Manager of Integrated Research and Development Division at Nintendo commented: "Designing the Wii console required an incredible list of breakthroughs in technology and innovation. The performance delivered by MoSys' 1T-SRAM technology is an important element of our solution. The graphic performance of Wii benefits from MoSys' ability to develop highly innovative and dependable embedded memory products."

According to MoSys, 1T-SRAM technology is the most advanced embedded memory technology in the world. Based upon a single transistor cell to achieve exceptional density, the technology is able to maintain the beneficial qualities of refresh-free interfacing and low latency random memory access cycle time that characterize the traditional six-transistor SRAM cell design.

The announcements confirm IGN's previous reports that the Wii would make use of 1T-SRAM both in an embedded and individual application. Our most up-to-date specs promise 16MB of eDRAM (integrated in NEC's LSI chips) and 88MB of 1T-SRAM (the "additional external memory chip"), for a total of 104MB of system RAM, not counting the allegedly accessible 512MB of Flash RAM or the ATI Hollywood GPU's on-board memory, which is said to amount to 3MB.

NEC certainly seems positive about the announcement, and well they should. The company has not reported profits for more than a year. On the strength of the expected demand for the Wii, however, NEC Electronics is now forecasting operating profits of $44 million for the year ending March 2007.

Igns word

 

[soundwave05]

Wait, there's 16MB of eDRAM now?

That's a pretty significant amount.

If that's true, games on the Wii that look considerably better than Resident Evil 4 should be quite easily possible.

 

[Striek]

Wait, there's 16MB of eDRAM now?

That's a pretty significant amount.

If that's true, games on the Wii that look considerably better than Resident Evil 4 should be quite easily possible.

Eh, there was 16MB in the GCN.

 

[Matt]

Eh, there was 16MB in the GCN.

No, there was not.

 

[soundwave05]

The GCN had 3MB of eDRAM, the PS2 had 4MB of eDRAM.

Hell, I think the XBox 360 only has 16MB of eDRAM.

 

[AniHawk]

So, visually, what level of performance should I be expecting for Wii games that actually use the power (like Ninja Gaiden used the Xbox or RE4 used the GC).

 

[soundwave05]

So, visually, what level of performance should I be expecting for Wii games that actually use the power (like Ninja Gaiden used the Xbox or RE4 used the GC).

I really don't know.


As far as GCN-to-Wii, perhaps say a jump similar from going from a Dreamcast to a GameCube?

There are lots of Dreamcast games (Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Shenmue) that look on par with the average GameCube game for instance ... but the higher end GCN stuff like Rogue Squadron, RE4, Zelda: TP, etc. is definitely beyond what you can do on the DC.

 

[Matt]

Wait, I don’t get what this means:

The announcements confirm IGN's previous reports that the Wii would make use of 1T-SRAM both in an embedded and individual application. Our most up-to-date specs promise 16MB of eDRAM (integrated in NEC's LSI chips) and 88MB of 1T-SRAM (the "additional external memory chip"), for a total of 104MB of system RAM, not counting the allegedly accessible 512MB of Flash RAM or the ATI Hollywood GPU's on-board memory, which is said to amount to 3MB.

Isn’t NEC’s LSI chips the GPU (which was designed by ATI and named Hollywood)? So why would it have 16 MBs of eDRAM, and then 3 more MBs of eDRAM?

 

[Striek]

No, there was not.

Hmm, very true...ish.

* Main RAM:
o Approximately 24 megabytes in capacity
o Sustainable latency of 10 nanoseconds
o RAM type is 1T-SRAM

* Auxiliary RAM:
o Approximately 16 megabytes in capacity
o 81 MHz in speed
o RAM type is DRAM

I guess it depends on what they refer to as 'embedded' in this scenario. I sincerely doubt Nintendo has devoted 100M+ transistors to have 16MB of the same type of eDRAM the Xbox360 has (10MB taking up 80M transistors (total GPU transistor count is ~330M)).

It seems like a very obvious move that there will be 16MB of the same type of DRAM for backwards compatibility purposes.

The GCN had 3MB of eDRAM, the PS2 had 4MB of eDRAM.

Hell, I think the XBox 360 only has 16MB of eDRAM.

The Xbox360 has 10MB.

 

[soundwave05]

Maybe the 16MB RAM pool is also used when the system is shut off for that 24/7 Connect stuff?

 

[davepoobond]

wii will have 1 gig of ram, i can feel it.

 

[Hyoushi]

So, visually, what level of performance should I be expecting for Wii games that actually use the power (like Ninja Gaiden used the Xbox or RE4 used the GC).

You will say "wow"

 

[cybamerc]

Isn’t NEC’s LSI chips the GPU (which was designed by ATI and named Hollywood)? So why would it have 16 MBs of eDRAM, and then 3 more MBs of eDRAM?

Sounds really odd but maybe it makes sense with regards to backwards compatibility. Or the more likely option: IGN has got something wrong.

 

[Terrell]

Sounds really odd but maybe it makes sense with regards to backwards compatibility. Or the more likely option: IGN has got something wrong.

QFT.

 

[NEC Avenue]

The extra eDRAM may be for the physics portion of the GPU.

 

[John Harker]

The extra eDRAM may be for the physics portion of the GPU.

Do we know anything more about that? The only time I ever heard about it is when the Konami guy casually mentioned it in an Elebits interview.

 

[DrGAKMAN]

GCN:
-300KB SRAM in Gekko
-3MB SRAM in Flipper
-24MB 1T-SRAM "Main Memory"
-16MB "A-Memory"

According to IGN they said there was all that plus 64MB of extra 1T-SRAM (which we now know is 1T-SRAM "Q" meaning quad, which is even faster/smaller/cooler/cheaper than regular 1T-SRAM according to MoSys) and that the CPU's SRAM has been upped. They then said that the GPU's specs "were still a mystery" yet they quoted it's SRAM at 3MB...which is basically the same as GCN's Flipper...which is something I never agreed with. So if IGN is to be believed...

Wii:
-?MB SRAM in Broadway (more than GCN's Gekko)
-3MB SRAM in Hollywood (same as GCN's Flipper)
-24MB 1T-SRAM + 64MB 1T-SRAM "Q" (totalling 88MB of "Main Memory")
-16MB "A Memory"

 

[Fafalada]

Gekko had no eDram whatsoever. There's about 300KB of cpu caches, but those would be SRAM

 

[Markster]

As far as GCN-to-Wii, perhaps say a jump similar from going from a Dreamcast to a GameCube?

That is the best comparison I've ever seen.

That is probably exactly the kind of power increase we're talking about. It illustrates just what "2x" the power means.