Is this the Processor for GBNext?

[Ooh-videogames]

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph....&OS=DN/20050010728&RS=DN/20050010728

Check out the code in () it says GB, its a design from ARM Unlimited.

 

[Kalin]

Isn't "GB" the country code, being part of the "foreign application data" section?

 

[McFly]

First thing I've read was '$' and 'snoop' ... shizzle dizzle gb2 fizzle!

Fredi

 

[Ooh-videogames]

Isn't "GB" the country code, being part of the "foreign application data" section?

Yeah it is, I just noticed that awhile ago.

 

[jvd]

we aren't getting a gba 2 or whatever for at least another two years and when we do get it i would suspect it will have a next gen mbx and an arm chip

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Aren't ARM a UK company? They came from Acorn didn't they? That'd explain the source being GB.

 

[Lazy8s]

With MBX's comparative performance, it was a strong contender to win any mobile contract, but it became a sure-thing for many devices when the ARM and SuperH architectures adopted it as their preferred SoC solution. A customer doesn't even have to decide on PowerVR anymore; they can simply turn to industry-standard processing architectures and end up with PowerVR as the solution to their performance demands directly (ARM's HR-S and R-S, Renesas's SH accelerators) or indirectly (Texas Instruments' OMAP 2, Intel's XScale companion).

Nintendo has gone with ARM before, and Nokia has gone with Texas Instruments' OMAP.

There are companies of various small sizes who don't clearly convey whether they're currently competing in the same business:
Atsana J2211 Media Processor - http://www.atsana.com/Products/J221X.php
Digital Media Professionals (not sure how mobile) - http://www.dmprof.com/w/jp/second/technology.html
Mtekvision MV8601 (mostly targeting camera functionality) - http://www.mtekvision.com/
Nazomi JA108 - http://www.nazomi.com/jChip.asp?tab=products&sub=ja108
Nexus Chips Gi-Pump - http://www.nexuschips.com/English/product/gipump.php
SMedia Glamo6330 - http://www.smediatech.com/product6330.htm
TAKUMI GSHARK - http://www.gshark.com/en/gshark/index.html
Toshiba T4G - http://www.toshiba.com/taec/press/to-404.shtml
(I think Toshiba is planning some high-end graphics accelerator products and might've been a better choice than NVIDIA for the PS3.)

There's big players which haven't made a large impact so far:
ATI's Imageon - http://mirror.ati.com/products/handheld.html
NVIDIA GoForce 3D - http://www.nvidia.com/page/handheld.html

And there are a few contenders on the horizon with promising offerings:
Bitboys G40 - http://www.bitboys.com/g40.php
Falanx Mali 110 - http://www.falanx.com/product.html

 

[Guden Oden]

Aren't ARM a UK company?

They were once, but were bought up by Intel years and years ago afair.

They came from Acorn didn't they?

Not sure if they CAME from there - could be - but ARM chips certainly started out in Acorn computers; the Archimedes to be exact. Initial Arms were quite anemic by the way, didn't have division instruction in hardware, etc. Also, the Archimedes lacked any coprocessors, so basically all sound and graphics had to be handled by the main CPU.

 

[Teasy]

They were once, but were bought up by Intel years and years ago afair.

I know that the Intel XScale CPU is based on the ARM CPU architecture. But I don't think Intel actually own them, I Intel are just a license partner. Not 100% sure of course.

 

[amk]

ARM is independant. Intel came into possession of StrongARM when it bought DEC, and later developed it into XScale.

ARM is an offshoot of Acorn; it once stood for Acorn RISC Machine. The first ARM was the first privately developed RISC CPU.

 

[Megadrive1988]

we aren't getting a gba 2 or whatever for at least another two years and when we do get it i would suspect it will have a next gen mbx and an arm chip

we could see the next GameBoy as early as this E3, with launch as early as next year. though it is very possible it won't arrive until 2007. we just don't know. but you can be sure that Nintendo will respond to the PSP with something more than just the DS.

 

[loekf2]

Nintendo has gone with ARM before, and Nokia has gone with Texas Instruments' OMAP.

This is nonsense. ARM is an IP company licensing embedded CPU designs. OMAP is a dual-CPU architecture from TI for the mobile/cell-phone market featuring an ARM CPU and a DSP.

This is an ARM patent for a multi-processor system.

Nintendo usually hires an external company to do their chip designs. For example IBM, ATI, Saronix for the GameCube. Sharp usually makes the silicon real estate for the Gameboy range.

And yes the GBA and DS are all ARM-based designs (ARM7 and/or ARM9). The original GB was based on a Z80 if I'm not mistaken, which means that the GBA contains two CPUs and is to some extent is a hybrid architecture.

 

[Lazy8s]

Maybe my wording was confusing. I tried to say that Nintendo products have used ARM-based solutions before, and Nokia's gaming products have used the OMAP architecture, incorporating some ARM-based designs. I was addressing speculation about what a possible next-generation Game Boy could use.

 

[Fox5]

Aren't ARM a UK company?

They were once, but were bought up by Intel years and years ago afair.

They came from Acorn didn't they?

Not sure if they CAME from there - could be - but ARM chips certainly started out in Acorn computers; the Archimedes to be exact. Initial Arms were quite anemic by the way, didn't have division instruction in hardware, etc. Also, the Archimedes lacked any coprocessors, so basically all sound and graphics had to be handled by the main CPU.

Didn't the GBA's ARM7 still lack division instruction in hardware?

 

[PC-Engine]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/Bootyluva/20050010728-2.jpg

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph....&OS=DN/20050010728&RS=DN/20050010728

Check out the code in () it says GB, its a design from ARM Unlimited.

That looks like the MPCore chip from ARM/NEC.

http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM11MPCoreMultiprocessor.html

That might be the direction Evolution will go if it's not based on a GCN SoC.

 

[Ooh-videogames]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/Bootyluva/20050010728-2.jpg

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph....&OS=DN/20050010728&RS=DN/20050010728

Check out the code in () it says GB, its a design from ARM Unlimited.

That looks like the MPCore chip from ARM/NEC.

http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM11MPCoreMultiprocessor.html

That might be the direction Evolution will go if it's not based on a GCN SoC.

There were other patents about memory management on a MPcore procdessor and power mangement. How would this affect BC with GBA, if were to be used.

 

[j^aws]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/Bootyluva/20050010728-2.jpg

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph....&OS=DN/20050010728&RS=DN/20050010728

Check out the code in () it says GB, its a design from ARM Unlimited.

That looks like the MPCore chip from ARM/NEC.

http://www.arm.com/products/CPUs/ARM11MPCoreMultiprocessor.html

That might be the direction Evolution will go if it's not based on a GCN SoC.

There were other patents about memory management on a MPcore procdessor and power mangement. How would this affect BC with GBA, if were to be used.

B/C shouldn't really be a problem if the processors share the same ISA...