Revolution specs leaked?

[Teasy]

This has to be the most obviously fake leak we've had for a long time. Its amazing that anyone can try to argue its plausible.. I think I'll book mark this thread for when we finally hear the real Revolution specs

The smaller the device the less powerful the device will be... it is simple logic as that.

In comparison to itself that's true to a degree, but in comparison to another console that's totally flawed logic (GC vs PS2 is just one example).

I can understand people thinking that Revolution will have to have lower clock speeds then XBox 360. But a CPU at less then half the clock speed and 1 third the amount of cores?.. exageration isn't even the word for that. Size and power don't follow a linear path. Something that's a quarter the size does not neccesarily have to be quarter the power.

 

[Glonk]

In comparison to itself that's true, but in comparison to another console that's totally flawed logic (GC vs PS2 is just one example).

But that's with a different manufacturing process, which explains most of it. Look at PStwo versus GC for a more apt comparison.

All three consoles will be 90nm.

 

[clem64]

Ninty themselves don't even know the real specs yet. Both chips aren't even finalized.

Some guy heard the "2-3 times the power of GC" and just made up specs. based on that.

 

[Teasy]

But that's with a different manufacturing process, which explains most of it. Look at PStwo versus GC for a more apt comparison.

The different process technology was part of it yes, but the extra time in development and so newer feature set was also a big part of it.

 

[Legend]

wasn’t it announced that Rev would have internal memory of something like ~300M?
I thought I read something about built in memory for Rev.

 

[jvd]

wasn’t it announced that Rev would have internal memory of something like ~300M?
I thought I read something about built in memory for Rev.

512 megs of flash memory . Most likely to download nes , supernes and n64 games to

 

[Evil_Cloud]

wasn’t it announced that Rev would have internal memory of something like ~300M?
I thought I read something about built in memory for Rev.

512 megs of flash memory . Most likely to download nes , supernes and n64 games to

In 2006 large capacity SD Flashcards (1 - 2GB) will be very cheap, with 4 - 8GB cards being available as well. 512MB should be enough to download almost the entire NES and SNES catalogue, for N64 games or large Revolution content downloads people might want a large SD card... Unless it is only possible to download games to the internal flashcard, since I can imagine certain illegal ways to play ROMS from an external flashcard...

 

[SoVos20]

In comparison to itself that's true, but in comparison to another console that's totally flawed logic (GC vs PS2 is just one example).

But that's with a different manufacturing process, which explains most of it. Look at PStwo versus GC for a more apt comparison.

All three consoles will be 90nm.

You must not understand that technology advances overtime in both speed and size.

FYI A 2.13 GHZ Pentium-M is smaller, uses less power, and is faster than a 3.0 GHZ P4, even when both are 90nm. Smaller does not mean slower, and less power does not mean slower.

 

[Nightz]

In 2006 large capacity SD Flashcards (1 - 2GB) will be very cheap, with 4 - 8GB cards being available as well. 512MB should be enough to download almost the entire NES and SNES catalogue, for N64 games or large Revolution content downloads people might want a large SD card... Unless it is only possible to download games to the internal flashcard, since I can imagine certain illegal ways to play ROMS from an external flashcard...

Personally I think 512MB of internal flash RAM is pointless, they should just include a free 1GB SD card with the console instead.

 

[jvd]

the flash ram is most likely much much faster than a card and nintendo doesn't make any standards for memory sticks .

 

[Cobra101]

Someone said the GC faired well.

Yes it did.

But the PPC chip it has was a fairly cool running chip at the time. I expect the ATI chip was also. There is still a fan in it and its reasonably noisy.

Given that IBM made a tri-core chip for MS that requires water cooling, tells me these cutting edge chips have pretty high thermal characteristics. We are not sure what the Cell has but I think its safe to say the PS3 will have a similar cooling solution.

So unless IBM has magically worked up a thermal wonder chip for Nintendo, me thinks its going to be rather crippled.

 

[Teasy]

Cobra, what speed would the 360 CPU have to be dropped to before it ran at a reasonable temperature in your opinion though? Once you come to a conclusion (guestimate) then factor in the extra year of development time (even if they don't use a smaller process their are other ways of doing that). What's your guess?

BTW won't IBM have their 65nm micron process up and running in early 2006 anyway? I thought they were starting 65nm in 2005 and going into full production in 2006?

 

[V3]

So unless IBM has magically worked up a thermal wonder chip for Nintendo, me thinks its going to be rather crippled.

Nintendo can go with multiple cores and not clock it as high, such the other rumour specs: 4 cores @ 2.5 GHz. It'll be a bigger chip, easier to cool.

 

[Teasy]

Even a 4 core version at only 2Ghz would be quite close to the performance of 360's CPU.

 

[Mordecaii]

It would also be huge and very difficult to get good yields out of while manufacturing it... While I don't think the Revolution will be immensely far behind PS3 and the 360, I do think that it'll be less powerful. Has anyone actually put 3 DVD cases together and held them? It's tiny for an entire console, and yet that is what Nintendo is claiming as the entire size of the Revolution... That's around 1/2 the size of the Gamecube which was already very small. I honestly don't think it's possible to include hardware up to par with the 360 and PS3 in that small of a case.

 

[Glonk]

You must not understand that technology advances overtime in both speed and size.

FYI A 2.13 GHZ Pentium-M is smaller, uses less power, and is faster than a 3.0 GHZ P4, even when both are 90nm. Smaller does not mean slower, and less power does not mean slower.

No need to be condescending to me. I understand that.

And the 2.13GHz isn't always faster -- in fact, for things like multimedia rendering, the Pentium Ms are still slower.

And you seem to get the wrong idea that Nintendo's timeframe gives it an advantage. Power5-derived chips are the flavor for the next couple years. Nintendo isn't getting IBM to do a completely custom chip (I can say this with absolute certainty), it'll be a modified version of an existing core. They're not going to get a Power6-derived core or a brand new core. You shouldn't expect something magically more efficient and powerful.

 

[jvd]

but the advantage is they will be launching very very close to the process change . So a 4 core 2 ghz chip might have worse yields than the x360 cpu when they drop to 65nm they can lower the up the voltage to get better yields + smaller size of the chip + natural power reduction will cancel that out .

all 3 consoles will get better yields and lower power needs and heat production with the 65nm shrink

 

[Glonk]

Nintendo can go with multiple cores and not clock it as high, such the other rumour specs: 4 cores @ 2.5 GHz. It'll be a bigger chip, easier to cool.

I wouldn't put much confidence in those rumours.

Even dual 2.5GHz G5 use water cooling in Apple's systems.

The yields on such a chip would be pretty terrible IMO. And adding more chips to the same die space isn't going to help your thermals, it'll hurt them even more.

Why do you think it's taking so long for the PowerPC 970MP (dual core) to come out? They've been trying to release them for quite a while now, but are having issues.

The quad-core 970 variant rumour is a complete joke.

 

[Teasy]

It would also be huge and very difficult to get good yields out of while manufacturing it...

One year from now after 5 years of development?

Has anyone actually put 3 DVD cases together and held them? It's tiny for an entire console, and yet that is what Nintendo is claiming as the entire size of the Revolution

FYI they said in its final form it will be as high (or wide depending if its lying down or in a stand) as 3 DVD cases. But they didn't say it would be the same as 3 DVD cases in every dimension.

 

[Teasy]

And you seem to get the wrong idea that Nintendo's timeframe gives it an advantage. Power5-derived chips are the flavor for the next couple years. Nintendo isn't getting IBM to do a completely custom chip (I can say this with absolute certainty), it'll be a modified version of an existing core. They're not going to get a Power6-derived core or a brand new core. You shouldn't expect something magically more efficient and powerful.

Of course its an advantage from a technology point of view. Entirely new chip or not the extent to which the chip can be modified depends on the time it spends in developement and the time of its release. Though wether its enough of an advantage to pull off a very similar powered yet cooler CPU compared to 360's CPU is arguable of course.