A Summary of the Huge Wii Thread

[ATI-liens]

Things don't shrink linearly for a whole host of reasons especially if you intend a significant clock increase.

Thats why i said "Closer" and not "Exact". Also the 750cxe was designed to run at speeds faster then 485. (Remember Nintendo bumped up the Gekko from 400Mhz to 485 at the last minute)

backwards compatability doesn't mean virtual console. we're talking about Wii's ability to play GC games, the lack of issues experienced while playing GC games on Wii

Yes and the point i was making if you read between the lines was that Nintendo are trying to make previous games run the same on the Wii as the day they came out, not faster.

it's natural that PAL regeons would have PAL releases of PAL games (50hz and all), anyway. do you expect all of those people to have to buy a new TV just to play snes games on the Wii VC? and yes, i'm aware that some TVs sold in pal territories accept 60hz or NTSC signals, but it doesn't mean they all do

What are you talking about? most people in the Uk have LCD'tv's/ HD-TV which can take 60hz no one would have to buy a new TV to play SNES games, Wii pal games run @ 60hz . I like i said before, my point was that Nintendo are trying to keep old games the same, old meaning anything before the Wii.

 

[Fox5]

How would it be transparently compatible with Gamecube then, especially at such a low clockspeed? I think the CPU is almost certainly nearly identical to the Cube CPU. They shrunk it, and then went as high in clock as such an old architecture could comfortably go.

i think this is very telling. where are the BC issues with Wii? i've heard some people say some games run smoother (and i wouldn't call that an issue, not have i experieced it myself), and i've heard that unofficial devices (like the unofficial GBA adapter) run at an odd speed (faster?), but seriously. sony had issues with different models of the PS2 (and even the PS1, and sega with different models of the Saturn) being fully comptable with native games, not to mention a few BC titles were lost with each revsion.

for me, this pretty much rules out any "new" hardware designes for me. hollywood and broadway have to be (at best) supersets of flipper and gekko.

We don't know how coding on the cube was, early on there were reports that Nintendo was keeping all programming high level on the cube, it may only need to be instruction set compatible in order to be backwards compatible (especially since there's evidence that the cpu runs at full speed even when playing cube games), it could possibly be any chip that implements the PowerPC architecture. However, IBM doesn't have a big portfolio of chips, and it's not high enough clock speed to be power4 based, so probably g3 based at least.

 

[fearsomepirate]

What are you talking about? most people in the Uk have LCD'tv's/ HD-TV which can take 60hz

Really? The HDTV penetration rate of the UK is already more than 50%? Where are you getting these crazy numbers?

http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2006/11/uk_hdtv_market.html

nearly 10% of households will have an HD Ready set by the end of 2006

10% is a lot less than "most," my friend.

 

[ninzel]

Goto said the same (check the summary).

Ok found the summary.

 

[ATI-liens]

Really? The HDTV penetration rate of the UK is already more than 50%? Where are you getting these crazy numbers?

http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2006/11/uk_hdtv_market.html


10% is a lot less than "most," my friend.

Thats why i put LCD'tv's/ HD-TV.

did you see the slash?

 

[pc999]

Things don't shrink linearly for a whole host of reasons especially if you intend a significant clock increase.

Would it be a significant clock increase?
I ask because IIRC at the time there already are 750CXe at 600Mhz in a 180nm process.

 

[fearsomepirate]

So 40% of households in the UK have an LCD TV? That seems unreasonably high. I could be wrong.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

They might do, but not as their primary TV I'd imagine. LCDs in bedrooms make a lot of sense. All this is off topic though, which is a bad start for the new Wii Tech thread!

 

[LunchBox]

on a side note.

I've always favored plasma than lcd TVs... the contrast level is just so much better on plasma...

only thing is that plasma TVs suck out about 2x the amount of electricity...

________________


It seems that even though the tech inside the Wii is decently capable, it gets bypassed with easy "crappy" ports due to the existing versions for ps2/xbox/gc...

it looks like the only hope for the developers of multi-platform games to fully take advantage of the Wii's hardware is when they stop making games for gc/ps2/xbox

since they won't have the option of just easily porting the same version from those systems...

they would have to take it from xbox360 or ps3 assets and work with the Wii's strengths and work around the Wii's weaknesses...

 

[OtakingGX]

only thing is that plasma TVs suck out about 2x the amount of electricity...

I think this has become a new urban legend. For the same size a plasma screen will draw more power than an LCD, but not twice. Now, the plasma may draw twice as much power for the same price, seeing as you'll be getting a smaller LCD for the same amount of money.

The same goes for plasma TVs humming at high altitudes. Older sets were susceptible to this, but most manufacturers have realized this and their sets are rated for high altitude use. Of course, if you live in the Himalayas you might still be out of luck.

 

[TheChefO]

only thing is that plasma TVs suck out about 2x the amount of electricity...

________________


It seems that even though the tech inside the Wii is decently capable, it gets bypassed with easy "crappy" ports due to the existing versions for ps2/xbox/gc...

it looks like the only hope for the developers of multi-platform games to fully take advantage of the Wii's hardware is when they stop making games for gc/ps2/xbox

since they won't have the option of just easily porting the same version from those systems...

they would have to take it from xbox360 or ps3 assets and work with the Wii's strengths and work around the Wii's weaknesses...

plasma static image burn-in is also a problem depending on your usage. Game time with static healthbars etc would have to be carefully managed.

I agree with your wii port sentiment and we should start seeing much more impressive titles showing up on wii in a year or two. Problem will be how these ported titles look next to the originals as I'm sure ps2 gen is also holding next-gen back somewhat also.

 

[ninzel]

Does Nintendo use software to switch the hardware into different modes to handle the different "systems" it plays?

 

[swaaye]

Wii and most plasma TVs have the pixel shift to prevent burn in. Seems to work pretty well.

 

[Fox5]

Wii and most plasma TVs have the pixel shift to prevent burn in. Seems to work pretty well.

What do you mean by that? Oh yeah, I do recall seeing an anti burn in option in the Wii's system menu, what does it do?

 

[ninzel]

The Wii shuts down very smoothly. Instead of popping off, it fades off. I think that might have to do with the anti burn feature.

 

[The_legend_of_drtre]

It is based on a 750 CL. I'm the one who found the pdf file for it and posted it in a whole bunch of forums.

On IGN they said it was based off a 750 CL then 5 minutes later they took that part of the article out. So I got curious and I searched IBM.com for any info I could find on it and I found the detailed PDF file on the chip. It is the same exact numbers for the CPU as max console posted.

If you think the Max console specs are correct, then it is definately a 750 cl.

 

[inefficient]

It is based on a 750 CL. I'm the one who found the pdf file for it and posted it in a whole bunch of forums.

On IGN they said it was based off a 750 CL then 5 minutes later they took that part of the article out. So I got curious and I searched IBM.com for any info I could find on it and I found the detailed PDF file on the chip. It is the same exact numbers for the CPU as max console posted.

If you think the Max console specs are correct, then it is definately a 750 cl.

The 750CL has no SIMD unit and does not support Alitivec/Vector operations making it a poor console CPU. It would make the Wii CPU weaker than it is already rumored to be. At the very least they would have added some sort of vector unit to it. It has to be a modified 750CL if anything.

 

[fearsomepirate]

The 750CL has no SIMD unit and does not support Alitivec/Vector operations making it a poor console CPU.

Gekko had no SIMD unit, either. However, I believe it was capable of splitting the FP registers to operate on 2 SP numbers at the same time, sort of a "half" vector-unit.

 

[The_legend_of_drtre]

The 750CL has no SIMD unit and does not support Alitivec/Vector operations making it a poor console CPU. It would make the Wii CPU weaker than it is already rumored to be. At the very least they would have added some sort of vector unit to it. It has to be a modified 750CL if anything.

Well yeah I said "based on" of course it been modified and heavily. Gekko was a 750 cxe with 50 more instructions, I'm sure broadway has has many more instructions and improvements added to it as well. It's probably basically a lower scale 970 model by now after all the added instructions.

 

[Fox5]

Well yeah I said "based on" of course it been modified and heavily. Gekko was a 750 cxe with 50 more instructions, I'm sure broadway has has many more instructions and improvements added to it as well. It's probably basically a lower scale 970 model by now after all the added instructions.

Wasn't the 970 a much wider and deeper (pipeline) design than the 750?