Revolution's Hardware: What do we really know until now? The inquisitive minds enter

[Rodéric]

I thought I'll do a quick summary of the hard facts we know:

Exactly how "informations" provided by a single source are "hard facts" ?

 

[Tahir2]

"Hard facts" will be from a Nintendo official spec list on an official Nintendo website.
Even these can change before release.

 

[Ooh-videogames]

I thought I'll do a quick summary of the hard facts we know:

Broadway:
729MHz

Hollywood:
243MHz
3MB texture buffer
includes GPU, DSP, I/O bridge
14MBs of extra D-RAM ?
shaders ?

RAM:
main: 24MB 1T-SRAM
external: 64MB 1T-SRAM

Interestingly the RAM is split into two pools, although they seem to be absolutely identical. Maybe the 24MB are integrated into Hollywood?

Remember the ram is supposed to be highly optimized. So I would say the memory is 1T-SRAM-Q. I expect the memory to be considerablely faster than whats in the GC.

 

[StefanS]

Exactly how "informations" provided by a single source are "hard facts" ?

Given that they're according to Matt directly from the official devkit documentation they're definitely "harder" than anything else out there. Note, that I didn't post what Matt speculated about Revolution, but only the solid pieces of information.

Ooh-videogames, as for the RAM issue, I agree that it's likely that 1T-SRam-Q is used, but so far we haven't heard anything from a good source on that.

 

[SugarCoat]

If Broadway cost the same as Xenos, that might reflect total cost for the rights with no royalty payments. Nintendo may have thought it's the controller that'll matter not the GPU, so why give a slice of software sales to ATI when their technology isn't going to driving the demand. Another way of putting it, Nintendo may have just payed ATI a lump sum for the GPU, with no strings attached.

no company in that position would ever do that.

 

[Almasy]

no company in that position would ever do that.

Why not?? It´d certainly explain the rumored ammount of money Nintendo spend on its GPU. It even bodes pretty nicely with all we have heard. And really, why would ATI want to hold on to a slow, outdated and stripped in features GPU?? Better off just sell everything to Nintendo while not using much resources and voila! Hollywood is done.

 

[Brimstone]

I think the idea for the Revolution controller has existed at Nintendo for quite some time. When the rumors of the next Mario game were mentioned many years back, the code name "Marionette" was mentioned. I can see a conection between the controller and "puppet" or "Marionette" style control of Mario.


I hold out hope for innovation in the hardware. It's been mentioned the GPU is not an updated "Flipper" GPU. Also if I recall corectly Dave Baumann even mentioned the Nintendo GPU is the most custom of all three consoles.


My random speculation. Maybe Nintendo/ATI didn't see the need for HD resolutions because they decided to go with Fragment Anti Aliasing like the Matrox Parhelia had? A game style where 16x FAA would really shine on would be a flight simulator, and it has been rumored Pilot Wings is one of the launch titles. If Pilot Wings with 32xFAA was shown, probably no one would care about the raw specs, the image quality would be stunning.

 

[pc999]

I hold out hope for innovation in the hardware. It's be mentioned the GPU is not a updated "Flipper" GPU. Also if I recall corectly Dave Baumann even mentioned the Nintendo GPU is the most custom of all three consoles.

He also said somethingh like that ATI now use one main R&D source, and then that main design is adapted for diferent uses ( I take design as being a very broad term here eg unified shaders or something like).

 

[Megadrive1988]

I think the idea for the Revolution controller has existed at Nintendo for quite some time. When the rumors of the next Mario game were mentioned many years back, the code name "Marionette" was mentioned. I can see a conection between the controller and "puppet" or "Marionette" style control of Mario.

very cool connection.

I hold out hope for innovation in the hardware. It's been mentioned the GPU is not an updated "Flipper" GPU. Also if I recall corectly Dave Baumann even mentioned the Nintendo GPU is the most custom of all three consoles.

exellent.

I have faith in Dave Baumann -- combined that with the comment from ATI's Swinimer that Hollywood is not based on Flipper-- well--things are looking 'up' for Hollywood, as far as what we know.

 

[SugarCoat]

Why not?? It´d certainly explain the rumored ammount of money Nintendo spend on its GPU. It even bodes pretty nicely with all we have heard. And really, why would ATI want to hold on to a slow, outdated and stripped in features GPU?? Better off just sell everything to Nintendo while not using much resources and voila! Hollywood is done.

No company in their right mind would wave royalty rights. It just doesnt happen, ever. Not if the company is interested in making money. Didnt we go through this with Xenos and how MS bought the entire chip and wouldnt owe ATI a cent after the fact? That rumer lasted far too long, and now we're going to go through it again with the revolution? ATI would never wave rights to royalties on any multi-million unit console. Not unless they leave the business of making money that is.

 

[StefanS]

I think the idea for the Revolution controller has existed at Nintendo for quite some time. When the rumors of the next Mario game were mentioned many years back, the code name "Marionette" was mentioned. I can see a conection between the controller and "puppet" or "Marionette" style control of Mario.

Marionette was never a game. It was mentioned by undisclosed source at Nintendo that it is / was not a game.
Maybe it was the codename for the Rev remote, who knows...

EDIT:
From the man himself, Miyamoto:
Marionette
"And as for Marionette, it is still under development. It is not a Mario game, but an actual Marionette game utilizing a puppet. I am hoping to make something both complicated and simple at the same time [with this game], which is kind of a contradiction. But already we are experimenting. And once again, sometime in the future we may be able to show you something on it."

http://cube.ign.com/articles/097/097690p1.html

 

[LunchBox]

Go ahead, develop your point of view.

What do you mean, that the Revolution GPU is more than what IGN says or that you think that the original GPU was scrapped for a simple refresh of the Flipper?

my speculation is that...

I think that maybe...

they did make a more powerful GPU only to be later scrapped...

because of an unforseen incompatibility issue regarding playing GC titles...

maybe the design was quite radical and efficient but wasn't fully compatible...

so they just scrapped it and made another chip that was more directly corelated to it's predecesor...

which is what Nintendo primarily wanted... full backwards compatibility...

 

[Corwin_B]

my speculation is that...

I think that maybe...

they did make a more powerful GPU only to be later scrapped...

because of an unforseen incompatibility issue regarding playing GC titles...

maybe the design was quite radical and efficient but wasn't fully compatible...

so they just scrapped it and made another chip that was more directly corelated to it's predecesor...

which is what Nintendo primarily wanted... full backwards compatibility...

If this were the case, they probably would have included both chips in the same design, no ? A Flipper done with a current process probably wouldn't be very large or expensive, and in the long run, having a more modern GPU would be more beneficial...

 

[pc999]

Both chips on one die would be lesss than 13$.