Was IBM Stretched Too Thin To Provide Revolution With a Custom CPU?

[Alpha_Spartan]

What say you?

 

[Asher]

Revolution does have a custom CPU. It's not radically different from the Gekko, because Nintendo didn't want it to be.

 

[scificube]

doubtful.

 

[OtakingGX]

I think IBM shovelled off the PPC 4xx property (for $127 million I believe) in order to concentrate on a few big clients (Nintendo, MS, Sony) and spend more resources on their technologies..

Seeing as each company is getting a different flavor of their POWER architecture it seems unlikely that they're spread too thin. They just gave every company what they wanted. You can spend development dollars on making a massive workhorse of a CPU that costs you an arm and a leg to fabricate, or you can throw them at a more light and lean design, with smaller die space and higher yields.

 

[LunchBox]

i don't think that was the case...

IBM knew what Nintendo wanted...

They knew just how much Nintendo was willing to spend...

 

[speng]

IBM could have handled even more, it's not a "small" company you know.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the other consoles use PowerPC technology so it wasn't entirely new.

Speng.

 

[Asher]

i don't think that was the case...

IBM knew what Nintendo wanted...

They knew just how much Nintendo was willing to spend...

I don't think it was entirely a cost issue, but a thermal issue too.

 

[Korrupt]

Revolution does have a custom CPU. It's not radically different from the Gekko, because Nintendo didn't want it to be.

This is probably the case. Nintendo is going for cheap, small and efficient. Whether that works out for them, I'm not sure. Should be interesting to say the least, a lot is riding on that remote of theirs.