IBM and Microsoft -- together again?

[cthellis42]

Ah, lovely rumors. Life would be so tiresome without them!

An anonymous source informed us today that Microsoft and IBM have signed a multi-million dollar agreement under which IBM Microelectronics will manufacture a next generation CPU for the Xbox 2. Work on the new processor has already started, but the deal was inked just a few days ago.

Who is designing the chip? At this point, we don?t know. We assume that the chip would be built at the East Fishkill plant. This is IBM?s most state-of-the-art fabrication facility.

We also don?t know if the chip will be manufactured using current 0.13 micron (a micron is a millionth of a meter) process technology or the upcoming 90nm fabrication process.

At the moment we have no official confirmations about this information so take it for what it?s worth. A Microsoft spokesman was unavailable for comment at the time of posting this story. We?ll certainly have more as things develop.

This would certainly make things interesting. ^_^ I wonder what IBM would do once Sony and Microsoft start spouting off "best console EVAR!" and people start asking them questions.

 

[Grall]

Is this another indirect indication Nintendo and M$ might be heading off to bed together???

I mean, THINK about it... Wouldn't be so bad now would it?!?

Nintendo and M$ - both use ATi to provide graphics. If they both go for IBM too for a CPU - and frankly, why wouldn't Ninty do that - then surely they almost HAVE to do a compatible machine!

Nintendo would provide the doorway M$ needs to reach Japan, while M$ provides the older demographics THEY need. They'd be a good match (and I would not have to miss out on any kickass titles since I can't buy every console under the sun - having a 2-in-1 deal here would be ideal. )

Just speculating...


*G*

 

[Josiah]

Interesting that IBM might have a hand in all 3 next-gen consoles.

 

[London Geezer]

Interesting that IBM might have a hand in all 3 next-gen consoles.

yeah, weird... i mean, if it were true, They would make so much money it's not even funny....

 

[cybamerc]

It wouldn't be the first time someone went with a company after Nintendo showed the way so to speak. I think M$ will go with either AMD or Intel though.

 

[marconelly!]

What are the chances for this? Why would Microsoft abandon sure thing that is Intel/AMD over some dubious new processor from IBM that would even further complicate promissed backwards compatibility?

Is this another indirect indication Nintendo and M$ might be heading off to bed together???

Don't count on it. Although the partnership beween two 'losers' might make for some poetic justice, I think a lot more believable scenario would be cooperation between Nintendo and Sony, being two Japanese companies one of which being de-facto leader who would guarantee massive sales and profits from such co-op. That is, if sky would fall down and Nintendo would be willing to agree to any kind of such partnership to begin with, which is extremely unlikely.

 

[Deepak]

IBM CEO is going to get a big BONUS this time.....

 

[PiNkY]

yeah, weird... i mean, if it were true, They would make so much money it's not even funny....

In comparison to their revenue, i guess this rather amounts to peanuts in the end (margins definitly aren't high on console processors and cell seems to be an ip deal on ibms part (considereing that sony/toshiba will produce the actual chips))

 

[jvd]

yeah, weird... i mean, if it were true, They would make so much money it's not even funny....

In comparison to their revenue, i guess this rather amounts to peanuts in the end (margins definitly aren't high on console processors and cell seems to be an ip deal on ibms part (considereing that sony/toshiba will produce the actual chips))

Well if sony sells 50 million consoles and each console has a chip that gets ibm 5 bucks . Thats alot of money. Then you figure around 10 million for the nintendo system and another 10 million for the ms system (if not more) Thats alot of money

 

[jvd]

Is this another indirect indication Nintendo and M$ might be heading off to bed together???

I mean, THINK about it... Wouldn't be so bad now would it?!?

Nintendo and M$ - both use ATi to provide graphics. If they both go for IBM too for a CPU - and frankly, why wouldn't Ninty do that - then surely they almost HAVE to do a compatible machine!

Nintendo would provide the doorway M$ needs to reach Japan, while M$ provides the older demographics THEY need. They'd be a good match (and I would not have to miss out on any kickass titles since I can't buy every console under the sun - having a 2-in-1 deal here would be ideal. )

Just speculating...


*G*

I said before I could see nintendo and ms making a joint console . Each would make thier own hardware. Nintendo would have the cute box for children and familys . Ms will have the media hub box. THey will be splitting dev costs on the hardware and they can then loose more on each systems. Both fan bases would buy the system. Then ms cna buy sega and it be really ganging up on sony haha. Its like back in kindergarten. THe bully would pick on diffrent people and then those people would join up and kick his butt. Of course that would work for me as I would only have to buy 1 system to play sega and nitendo games on it . THat be great.

 

[hey69]

Stop making posts that do not contribute to the discussion of the topic.

 

[chaphack]

This is your 3rd warning. Stop making posts that detract from the overall board and the topic of discussion.

 

[David_South#1]

Nintendo contracted NEC to make their next processor. (Not IBM)


Also, when Cell development was announced Sony was asked if they would sell these processors to their competition. They said they would sell to any customer including MS & NES.

Moving on to the truth. Sony doesn't have exclusive rights or control over the business use of cell/STI. IBM and Tishiba can use and sell it as they like.

Considering IBM already has an STI demo chip with a theoretical working peak of 35GigaOPS...well let's just say that's better than any other processor on the market.

Also of now is that IBM & MS have equal access to all the technical details of grid networks. Argonne Labs converted globus and other Grid application to windows as part of it's mutual funding from MS & IBM. To be honest MS knows more about the software side of STI than Sony.

If this news is true, then it may in fact be MS buying into STI.

Also of note is that Sony needs Apple to help with their software.
Steve Jobs has met with Idei more than once. Idei does not like Jobs nature.
But Sony really needs a development group familiar with Linux/Unix/BSD.

 

[London Geezer]

Stop trolling the board with useless posts that do not contribute to the discussion of the topic

 

[Grall]

Nintendo contracted NEC to make their next processor. (Not IBM) ( SNIP) Also of note is that Sony needs Apple to help with their software.

When did Ninty announce this NEC deal? Like, NEVER, to my knowledge, so how can you be certain it is true?

Besides, Apple? Why Apple? They're not exactly known as cutting-edge UNIX/BSD developers, and besides, why would STI need UNIX/BSD devs anyway? Their console will likely run something proprietary since a monolithic OS isn't suited to a highly parallel setup like Cell anyway...


*G*

 

[ChryZ]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=6715[/URL]]NEWS WIRE Bloomberg said that NEC and Nintendo are working together to create a semiconductor for the successor to the Gamecube console in a bid to keep up with the Playstation 3.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=1051[/URL]]NEC linked with next Nintendo console
Rob Fahey 15:58 16/12/2002

Approaches to semiconductor giant prove Ninty's commitment to hardware

Semiconductor giant NEC has been approached by Nintendo about the creation and manufacturing of a key chip for the successor to its GameCube console, according to a Bloomberg report which claims unidentified executives within NEC as its source.

For its part, Nintendo has denied that any such discussions have taken place, but the timing certainly fits; the company would need to be seriously working on a successor to its current hardware about now, and it has successfully partnered with NEC on development in the past.

If true, the rumour would finally lay to rest claims from certain areas of the media that Nintendo plans to leave the hardware business after the GameCube, following in Sega's footsteps to become a third party publisher for consoles from Sony and Microsoft.

This rumour originated from comments made by NCL chairman Satoru Iwata in a speech made shortly after his appointment, when he said that it was becoming increasingly difficult to woo consumers with impressive new hardware, and that a focus on software was required instead. Although most commentators saw this as a thinly veiled attack on Microsoft's massively powerful Xbox, other interpreted it as a tacit admission that the company would no longer develop new hardware platforms.

Source:Bloomberg, Gamespot

 

[Grall]

That's not confirmed by either NEC nor Ninty.

One of your links refer to the other, which in turn is just some distant 5th-party analyst firm making guesses.

*G*

 

[London Geezer]

...and the other is the inquirer...

 

[ChryZ]

Well, at least they've quoted Bloomberg ...

 

[Urian]

ehem...

Are you sure that IBM will use Cell in XBOX 2 if the contract with MS is true.

Sony has a big part of the Cell patents under its name.

But IBM is posible, if we take out de Instruction Set of G5 and Pentium4 the 2 CPU are similar and now IBM design is more advanced in architecture.

An IBM Chip with x86 is posible.

The only reason that I can see is change of CPU manufacturator.