Fact: Nintendo to release HD console + controllers with built-in screen late 2012

[Entropy]

Apparently from the shot behind the box, which says on a sticker "Ex-W" and under it "45". However, even if that has something to do with PSU capabilities, it's partly ripped sticker, and could just as well be 145 as 45, the sticker is ripped in a manner which would hide anything before the number 4.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/14/plenty-of-close-up-wii-u-hardware-photos/

Thanks. Well, for reference the Wii power supply delivers 52W. And those kinds of power sockets are typically labelled with accepted voltage rather than power. I hereby express doubts.

Has anyone been able to determine that these boxes were actually functional? (Not that it matters a lot since the silicon of the real product isn't available yet.)

 

[Prophecy2k]

AllThingsD interviewed Iwata:

Nintendo’s Iwata Hopes the Wii U Will Steal Back Couch Time From the iPad (Part 1)
http://allthingsd.com/20110614/part...i-u-will-steal-back-couch-time-from-the-ipad/

I'm just really confused by their strategy with the WiiU. Are they trying to bring back the core gamer, or trying to capture the casuals again with a new gimmick? Or are they trying to cast their net wide to get everyone on board?

If it's the latter, i can't see them doing too well with the minimal info. and poorly communicated vision for the platform so far. All the most important questions they haven't answered. Instead they've just been papping on about ticking boxes (as though such things as HW power and online capabilities are as trivial things as just boxes to be ticked, and not areas of real weakness for Nintendo where they really need to try hard this time to convince the core gaming consumerbase).

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Apparently from the shot behind the box, which says on a sticker "Ex-W" and under it "45". However, even if that has something to do with PSU capabilities, it's partly ripped sticker, and could just as well be 145 as 45, the sticker is ripped in a manner which would hide anything before the number 4.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/14/plenty-of-close-up-wii-u-hardware-photos/

Humm.. I don't know if that sticker refers to anythinh related to power demands...

If it does, 45W is bad.. Nintendo always safeguards the PSUs by providing a lot more power than what's ever really needed.
As said before, the Wii hardly goes over 22W (25W total system TDP?) and its PSU goes up to 44,4W (12V 3700mA), probably for the two 5W USB ports.


I don't know what could fit on a 25W TDP but it's certainly not much.. Something like a 4-core 1.6GHz PowerPC A2, an underclocked+shrinked RV730 (400Mhz or less?) and 2*512MB DDR3L?

Or even less, because there are 4 USB 2.0 ports now, totalling 20W for the USB only.


Honestly, I'd have a really hard time believing the WiiU has a 45W PSU.
A 145W PSU would put things in a whole new perspective though.

 

[lilbroK]

Humm.. I don't know if that sticker refers to anythinh related to power demands...

If it does, 45W is bad.. Nintendo always safeguards the PSUs by providing a lot more power than what's ever really needed.
As said before, the Wii hardly goes over 22W (25W total system TDP?) and its PSU goes up to 44,4W (12V 3700mA), probably for the two 5W USB ports.


I don't know what could fit on a 25W TDP but it's certainly not much.. Something like a 4-core 1.6GHz PowerPC A2, an underclocked+shrinked RV730 (400Mhz or less?) and 2*512MB DDR3L?

Or even less, because there are 4 USB 2.0 ports now, totalling 20W for the USB only.


Honestly, I'd have a really hard time believing the WiiU has a 45W PSU.
A 145W PSU would put things in a whole new perspective though.

How much difference would that make? I mean this isn't a PC with 30 different things needing power. Then on top of that these are going to be custom parts that will likely be shrunk down since they are custom made.

Why wouldn't 45 be enough? It doesn't have an internal hard drive or other such extras. Just motherboard, cpu and gpu. The controller is external. Allso, what does Ex-W mean? Is that different from standard wattage? Aren't there only 2 USB ports?

 

[Kaotik]

And again, I emphasize, that the sticker is ripped in a manner which would hide anything before the number 4.

 

[lilbroK]

And again, I emphasize, that the sticker is ripped in a manner which would hide anything before the number 4.

It looks like its just faded to me. The Ex extends before the 45 and the paper look perfectly rectangular on my screen. Is there a large picture somewhere?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Nothing I stated was intentionally meant to sound aggressive. I was trying to say it humorously like in this http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/3/14/ , though now that I look at it, I could have worded that a lot better.

That's why smilies were invented.

Then perhaps you should go to the eye doctor. I can see it clearly...

That set the whole tone for reading the rest of your post.

It looks 60 FPS (to me) just like the 60 FPS in those videos looks different than the 30 FPS in those videos. That last video is the best example. I can see the difference between not only the 30 FPS to 60 but also the 60 FPS to 1000.

That's because of motion blur accumulating 33 samples into each of the 30 frames per second that YouTube displays.

YouTube presents 30 individual frames a second, and AFAIK there's no way around that at the moment. It's not a good source of media for investigations into game IQ!

Also, It seems that Wii U will not upscaling Wii games. Tis a bit disappointing considering how good a lot of games look with simple upscaling. I can not figure out why Nintendo does these things. This is just like that ridiculous SD card lock that had on the card reader in the Wii.

That is a little suggestive of Wii hardware in there rather than emulation, which doesn't make much sense. Wii shouldn't be hard to emulate. Rendering existing Wii games in HD would add value to upgraders.

 

[Kaotik]

It looks like its just faded to me. The Ex extends before the 45 and the paper look perfectly rectangular on my screen. Is there a large picture somewhere?

It's rectangular, yes, but it at least in my monitor looks to be ripper just like, say, annoying pricetags sometimes rip, aka you only get one "layer" of paper off instead of whole tag. The pattern doesn't support fading at all, IMO

 

[function]

There's a chance that Nintendo could use Global Foundries 32nm process for the AMD designed GPU, which the dummy case has convinced me might possibly exist as a separate processor.

What we need is for someone with a Llano laptop that can report power draw to measure idle power draw and furmark power draw to give us some kind of idea about the power consumption of Llano's GPU. Just a rough one, to know what might be achievable.

I started laughing when I saw that quote on Engadget. The "360 capable of DX10.1" was pretty lulzy too.

I'd like to write for a tech blog. I used to think that being unable to write and not knowing much about tech would rule me out. Engadget shows people like me that maybe, if you dream hard enough, u can find a way.

 

[stiftl]

I still think that the chip will be based on the Radeon Embedded series (I hope for the e6760)

I think this would fit quite well and they would have all the features XBn/PS4 will have.
Maybe they could do a die shrink to 28nm, but I don't know if this will be ready in time in such quantities.

 

[Kaotik]

When was the last time any console used off the shelf GPU? I think that rules AMD EmbeddedGPUs out

 

[stiftl]

When was the last time any console used off the shelf GPU? I think that rules AMD EmbeddedGPUs out

That's why I wrote "based on" not "will be"

 

[Shifty Geezer]

When was the last time any console used off the shelf GPU? I think that rules AMD EmbeddedGPUs out

PS3?

 

[Entropy]

The sticker is unconnected to power draw. I knew I had seen other stickers there. We can safely dismiss the 45W hypothesis.
Image

 

[patsu]

I'm just really confused by their strategy with the WiiU. Are they trying to bring back the core gamer, or trying to capture the casuals again with a new gimmick? Or are they trying to cast their net wide to get everyone on board?

If it's the latter, i can't see them doing too well with the minimal info. and poorly communicated vision for the platform so far. All the most important questions they haven't answered. Instead they've just been papping on about ticking boxes (as though such things as HW power and online capabilities are as trivial things as just boxes to be ticked, and not areas of real weakness for Nintendo where they really need to try hard this time to convince the core gaming consumerbase).

Looks like casting the net wide but HD compatible this time, and offering comparable graphics by staggering their release with PS360. Realistically, they may just get ports from multi platform core games, and focus on their existing customer base (Wii + DS).

It will be a long drawn process to convince hardcore gamers to come back since they are away for two generations. But the CoD type players, RTS and JRPG folks may not mind them. Was told DS is a JRPG powerhouse. RTS because the pad is the most natural interface for it.

If they can offer unique and fun experience at a *low enough* price, then it may appeal to families, 'specially those with Ninty's devices. I am curious to see if they wil partner with Steam. Sony did it once and will likely not pursue further (They usually hit once and leave if there is no quick result).

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Why wouldn't 45 be enough? It doesn't have an internal hard drive or other such extras. Just motherboard, cpu and gpu. The controller is external. Allso, what does Ex-W mean? Is that different from standard wattage? Aren't there only 2 USB ports?

-"Motherboard, cpu and gpu" is quite an understatement...

- There are 4 USB ports, 2 in the back and 2 in the front under disc bay, so 4*5W = 20W
- There's a Blu-Ray-esque disc drive, so another 5W at least (only recently has samsung started to ship "low-power" Blu-Ray drives that are USB 2.0 powered)
- Full sized SDHC cards can peak at ~1.5W
- 5GHz Wifi 802.11n could go up to 18W for full-speed MIMO 3x3, but let's assume the typical 8-10W (unless Nintendo is using something else for the controller, in which case could be controller comm + 802.11g, possibly consuming higher than that)
- 5 device Bluetooth could be up to 0.5W
- Assuming slow and low-power internal flash memory, let's say another 1.5W for internal storage

Sum all that and we have 20+5+1.5+8+0.5+1.5 = 36,5W

And now we have approx. 9W for:
- CPU
- eDRAM (already confirmed)
- GPU
- RAM
- Sound DAC

And I'm even assuming the GPU or the GPU have north\south bridge functionality included, or you'll need an external bridge chip for that.

Still think 45W is enough?
My dual-core 1.2GHz Athlon 64 Ferrari One with 780G, 11.6" screen bundles a 65W PSU. My father's 1830T with 11.6" screen, C2D ULV and intel graphics has a 50W PSU.

 

[RudeCurve]

Wet dream spec WiiU aint gonna happen.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Wet dream spec WiiU aint gonna happen.

I'm trying to figure out what's the point and meaning of this comment...

 

[Urian]

Do you really need 20W for 4 USB 2.0 ports?

Modedit: clean up noise

 

[hoho]

Do you really need 20W for 4 USB 2.0?

You will need it if you intend to plug in 4 devices that each take as much power as spec allows to take from the port.