Macronix to benefit from ROM for the Wii?

[Li Mu Bai]

According to Digitimes, Macronix International Company, the provider of mask ROM for Nintendo's next-generation console, revealed that Wii is expected to be responsible for at least 35% of the company's sales this year.

Macronix International President Miin Wu confirmed his company has received orders from Nintendo for Wii consoles, but declined to comment on shipment schedule and volume. However, Wu did mention that due to strong demand for mask ROM and NOR Flash, Macronix's production plants will remain running at more than 100% utilization rates for the entirety of 2006's second half.

For those unaware, mask ROM refers to a type of ROM (read-only memory) which cannot be programmed by a user. Rather, its contents are programmed by the IC manufacturer. Due to a relatively costly production process, mask ROM is used when needed volume is extensive, and usually ordered only after the code/data has been finalized.

http://www.thewiire.com/news/366/1/Mask_ROM_Provider_to_Profit_from_Wii

Is this in all probability related to Macronix's flash compatible ROM? Especially since the DVD accesory will be sold as a peripheral according to industry rumors so that Nintendo to circumvent paying DVD consortium fees. (ala the XBX remote) It could also simply used for DVD/CD playback of course, but why expect 35% of its sales to come from shipments of mask ROM to Nintendo, including for the Wii game console this year, according to company president Miin Wu, as quoted by the Chinese-language Commercial Times and Economic Daily News (EDN).

http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20060717PB208.html

I always understood (reading comparative & stand alone articles) that the two ways media management software can improve performance are background compaction and multithreading. Compaction reclaims space by identifying blocks that have obsolete data that can be erased, copying any valid data to a new location, then erasing the blocks to make them available for reuse. Such compaction increases the amount of usable space on the media and improves write performance. Compaction may also help to defragment noncontiguous data for improved performance on read operations. The space recovery is particularly valuable for the more costly NOR memory and the defragmentation benefits the slower-reading NAND. Compaction is best performed in the background during idle time, however, or it can interfere with critical operations and degrade performance. This is where a multithreading system becomes important. By allowing high-priority read requests to interrupt low-priority maintenance operations, a multithreading system can reduce read latency by orders of magnitude compared to a single-thread solution.

NOR is ideal for storing firmware, boot code, operating systems, and other data that changes infrequently, NOR can also support devices that combine a tremendous need for storage with a demanding set of application performance requirements. Larger media files are driving increased demand for inexpensive NAND, powerful new operating systems and intricate applications running on fast processors call for the kind of fast-executing code NOR can support. Conversely, higher density, lower cost, and faster write and erase times, and a longer re-write life expectancy make NAND especially well suited for consumer media applications in which large files of sequential data need to be loaded into memory quickly and replaced with new files repeatedly.

Still, both have their implementation trade-offs, it simply seems strange that Nintendo would opt for using the more expensive NOR vs. NAND. Especially since NEC has a NAND application available. If Macronix is going to be operating at 100% production capacity, I wonder who will be responsible for the Wii's DSP?

 

[Guden Oden]

By allowing high-priority read requests to interrupt low-priority maintenance operations, a multithreading system can reduce read latency by orders of magnitude compared to a single-thread solution.

I doubt a console's going to spend nearly enough time reading flash memory to have to deal with possible contention issues. If the flash needs to be defragmented/compacted, I would think that will be done when a game requests to save to the memory and space begins to run low. First the console firmware frees up space, then saves the game data.

If Macronix is going to be operating at 100% production capacity, I wonder who will be responsible for the Wii's DSP?

While Macronix designed the DSP present in the gamecube, it was integrated into flipper and manufactured by NEC. So whomever is contracted to produce hollywood, that's the one that indirectly will handle the DSP as well. Assuming there is a DSP in Wii, which probably isn't too far a leap of thought I'd say.

 

[pc999]

By allowing high-priority read requests to interrupt low-priority maintenance operations, a multithreading system can reduce read latency by orders of magnitude compared to a single-thread solution.

Are you hinting at a multicore design ?

I wonder who will be responsible for the Wii's DSP?

Which DSP? To the sound? This one is by NEC once it is integrated on the GPU.

 

[Li Mu Bai]

Are you hinting at a multicore design ?



Which DSP? To the sound? This one is by NEC once it is integrated on the GPU.

No, it would've been nice though pc. NEC is simply producing the motherboard, implementing someone else's DSP iirc, do you have a link to this?

 

[pc999]

No, it would've been nice though pc.

It wouldnt be the best soluction, but if the architeture resembles Gekko it may be the best/cheaper way of geting some more performance (namely the 3x IGN said)

NEC is simply producing the motherboard, implementing someone else's DSP iirc, do you have a link to this?

Can only find this one.

NEC Electronics selected MoSys® as the DRAM macro design partner for the Wii devices because MoSys is experienced in implementing 1T-SRAM® macros on NEC Electronics' eDRAM process. MoSys designed the circuits and layout of high-speed 1T-SRAM macros on NEC Electronics' 90 nm CMOS-compatible eDRAM technology.

The adoption of these eDRAM ASICs for Nintendo's new game console is a clear vote of confidence in NEC Electronics' eDRAM technology. The company is committed to delivering more value-added features to spur the adoption of its CMOS-compatible eDRAM solutions across a wide range of applications.

I think this mean it will make the GPU too.