Nintendo Revolution Potential Specs? & Bits On GBA2?

[Guden Oden]

I would expect Nintendo orders something with a fair wee chunk of eDRAM on it just like last time. Undoubtedly having noticed it made the 3D-chip more efficient, they're likely to do the same again.

 

[jvd]

haha . Yea they are made up. But they are close on the gpu . I understand it will be based off the r520

It's the R520 based on the R300 microarchitecture? I'm not saying you're wrong, It just seems odd for a system which is rumored to launch after Microsoft's console which will use a derivative of their new architecture. *shrug*

r300- r420-r520 - r600 . desktop .
r400 console

The r520 from my understanding is a sm3.0+ r300/r420 with fp 32 all the way through

the r400 is a new tech that comes close to the next dx or windows whatever in longhorn. The r600 will come out later and full support longhorn specs and be based off the r400 but in the destkop area.


The r520 refresh and r400 will over lap .


I"m assuming that ms is going to be using very advanced process to get the r400 out . Its also going to be one hell of a beast

 

[Vince]

I"m assuming that ms is going to be using very advanced process to get the r400 out . Its also going to be one hell of a beast

Thats another thing which I've wondered about. Informed word going back to 2002ish was that it might require more than 90nm fabrication. But then the announcement came that they'll use TSMC for the 3D IC. Still later it's been claimed it'll have eDRAM. Which according to their roadmaps atleast doesn't jive with a 2005 release on 65nm for logic (1H2006 entry for LP. 2H2006 for bulk/HP), nevermind embedded memory (which is struck at 130nm untill it goes 90nm in 1H2006). Something doesn't seem to add up. *shrug*

 

[jvd]

I"m assuming that ms is going to be using very advanced process to get the r400 out . Its also going to be one hell of a beast

Thats another thing which I've wondered about. Informed word going back to 2002ish was that it might require more than 90nm fabrication. But then the announcement came that they'll use TSMC for the 3D IC. Still later it's been claimed it'll have eDRAM. Which according to their roadmaps atleast doesn't jive with a 2005 release on 65nm for logic (1H2006 entry for LP. 2H2006 for bulk/HP), nevermind embedded memory (which is struck at 130nm untill it goes 90nm in 1H2006). Something doesn't seem to add up. *shrug*

From what I understand ibm is going to make all the chips at launch and for the first year.

the gpu will have 64 megs of edram . There will be 512 megs of system ram with 500-700mhz speed (gdr ram) and a 512bit bus from the vpu to the ram.

The cpus will have 1 meg l3 ? cache each. With a standard path to the ram.


Thats all i know . This news is old though about 4 months from when I heard it.

 

[Farid]

the gpu will have 64 megs of edram .

[french]Ouhlaaaa[/french].
I've also heard stuff about the Xenon GPU, but 64Mo of embedded dram on the R400 is definitely overkill.
What i heard (rumors coming from peoples actually working on a Xenon title) was in the order of 12~24Mo...

 

[jvd]

the gpu will have 64 megs of edram .

[french]Ouhlaaaa[/french].
I've also heard stuff about the Xenon GPU, but 64Mo of embedded dram on the R400 is definitely overkill.
What i heard (rumors coming from peoples actually working on a Xenon title) was in the order of 12~24Mo...

I dunno we heard diffrent haha . We shall see though. But ms wants to be able to go hdtv standards with no problems

 

[j^aws]

I"m assuming that ms is going to be using very advanced process to get the r400 out . Its also going to be one hell of a beast

Thats another thing which I've wondered about. Informed word going back to 2002ish was that it might require more than 90nm fabrication. But then the announcement came that they'll use TSMC for the 3D IC. Still later it's been claimed it'll have eDRAM. Which according to their roadmaps atleast doesn't jive with a 2005 release on 65nm for logic (1H2006 entry for LP. 2H2006 for bulk/HP), nevermind embedded memory (which is struck at 130nm untill it goes 90nm in 1H2006). Something doesn't seem to add up. *shrug*

From what I understand ibm is going to make all the chips at launch and for the first year.

the gpu will have 64 megs of edram . There will be 512 megs of system ram with 500-700mhz speed (gdr ram) and a 512bit bus from the vpu to the ram.

The cpus will have 1 meg l3 ? cache each. With a standard path to the ram.


Thats all i know . This news is old though about 4 months from when I heard it.

jvd, could you supply a link to that spec? Thx.

 

[Farid]

I dunno we heard diffrent haha . We shall see though. But ms wants to be able to go hdtv standards with no problems

Yeah time will tell, but for the HDTV standard, i also heard that 720p/i was MS "choice", so 12Mo would suffice amply. And, of course, the VPU can adress the main ram so...

jvd, could you supply a link to that spec? Thx.

Jvd said that he heard thoses estimations from somes of his friends that have infos about Xenon.

BTW, Jaws, people over at the Site Feedback forum, wants your head on a stick. The sigs thread.
Don't let them take away from you, your inalienable right to have ASCII art sigs!!

 

[jvd]

Right but they want 4x fsaa support with any res


and to jaws can't provide a link. I don't think you can link to a phone convo

 

[j^aws]

....
BTW, Jaws, people over at the Site Feedback forum, wants your head on a stick. The sigs thread.
Don't let them take away from you, your inalienable right to have ASCII art sigs!!

^_^

and to jaws can't provide a link. I don't think you can link to a phone convo

How about tapping the phones next time!

64Mo dedicated for sound only, GPU and CPU adressing their own ram.... whooa, the architects behind that are genius when it comes to console design.

I thought there was something familiar about this 'sound' memory, so I did some digging. The author made it out that it was dedicated to just 'sound' but apparently the GameCube has some called A-RAM, i.e. Audio RAM, lots of it too at 16 MB...and confusingly isn't just dedicated to audio...

GameCube's A-RAM



We haven't mentioned that GameCube includes another 16MB of system memory that is a good bit slower. Called A-RAM, or Audio RAM, this memory is used not only for audio processing, but for lower-priority system operations that don't require graphics' voracious bandwidth appetite.

One such operation that ATI mentioned developers are using it for is to create a CD-ROM cache as a kind of "virtual" ROM cartridge. This is a transitional technique that N64 programmers can use, since they're used to having reasonably fast access to game bits on the ROM cartridge, whereas the access time for disk media (in this case GameCube's CD-ROM drive) is orders of magnitude slower. And if a game needs a piece of data fast and the only place it can be found is on the CD-ROM, then the game is up a certain creek without a paddle.



Given the highly segmented nature of GameCube's memory configuration, developers will have to pay careful attention to keeping high-priority bits either in on-chip caches (the texture cache in particular) or in on-chip memory, so texture cache management is hugely important to making GameCube games scream. And pound for pound, games don't have as much working memory space in GameCube as they will on Xbox--taken at high level, the memory score is Xbox 64MB, GameCube 43MB. But Nintendo is counting on the fact that they made key pieces of memory very fast, and this may well be their ace in the hole.

Flipper also tends to audio processing chores using its integrated Macronix DSP core, but we'll cover the two platforms' audio capabilities in Part Three of our architectural comparison.

Source : GameCube A-Ram

A-RAM = 'Virtual ROM" cartridge...Nintendo don't want to let go of the past! And it does seem that the GameCube has a highly segregated memory architecure...Maybe those rumoured specs for Revolution were just an extrapolation of GameCubes architecture!

 

[Qroach]

64 meg of edram? Not likely...

 

[j^aws]

64 meg of edram? Not likely...

That's jvd talking about the Xenons GPUs eDRAM...and likely to be alot leass at 90 nm...

As for the N5 GPU, they'll probably combine the Graphics and sound on the same chip again, have alot less eDRAM but with extremely low latency SRAM...and if the GC had 16 MB of *slow* A-ram, the 64 MB A-Ram for N5 doesn't sound so silly?

 

[Teasy]

Jaws, what do you mean when you say:

A-RAM = 'Virtual ROM" cartridge

BTW just FYI I think A-RAM actually stands for auxiliary ram (although its aruable since what it stands for seems to depend on who you ask ).

EDIT: I just read that extremetech quote with the "virtual Rom cartridge" comment in it. Pretty strange comment IMO...

 

[wco81]

Does the GameCube have a fan?

Is it noisy?

Well if GC didn't, it sounds like the next one will be plenty noisy. Could scare the kiddies.

 

[Teasy]

Yes GC has a small exhaust fan which is quite quiet.

I doubt any fans in Revolution will be a problem. The noise coming from PS2 and XBox doesn't seem to scare the kiddies too much

 

[wco81]

Well it scares this kiddie.

The Power Mac G5 can be quiet but when you boot them up, they sound like a Hoover.

Considering the PS2 is 300 Mhz, I can't imagine how noisy the PS3 will be.

 

[Teasy]

Yeah consoles do seem to be getting louder every generation (comparing each console to its predacessor.. or comparing XBox to any other consoles ever ). I suppose that will only get worse.

 

[Fafalada]

although its aruable since what it stands for seems to depend on who you ask

It's only arguable if we ignore what Nintendo called it(which is indeed Auxiliary Ram) - but then if we do that, I propose we call it F-Ram instead...

The problem with these abbreviations is that 'creative' publications when lacking other info tend to just make up their own interpretations - and how are readers supposed to know any better.
What was it, I think I remember seeing an article once refering to DRam as Developer's Ram... :?

 

[j^aws]

although its aruable since what it stands for seems to depend on who you ask

It's only arguable if we ignore what Nintendo called it(which is indeed Auxiliary Ram) - but then if we do that, I propose we call it F-Ram instead...

The problem with these abbreviations is that 'creative' publications when lacking other info tend to just make up their own interpretations - and how are readers supposed to know any better.
What was it, I think I remember seeing an article once refering to DRam as Developer's Ram... :?

BS-RAM (Tm) and WTF-RAM (Tm) are the future of consoles!

So what type of *slow* ram was this A-RAM then?...EDO, SDRAM?

 

[Farid]

What was it, I think I remember seeing an article once refering to DRam as Developer's Ram... :?

and if the GC had 16 MB of *slow* A-ram, the 64 MB A-Ram for N5 doesn't sound so silly?

64Mo of A-Ram as in the GC, Yes, but:

As for those audio specs, if they are going for 196Khz, then they'll most certainly need the dedicated 64MB.

That's silly (but not as silly as the explanation made by N-Sider).