I usually don't post or reply to threads, but this quesiton has been nagging at my mind and no search I did at the subject gave me any useful info to go on. Earlier today while going through a reliable blog about Wii rumors and speculation someone in a comment posted a rumor link about the speed. While the speed of the broadway wasn't what cocerned me, this image caught my eye. Now Nintendo Wii's specs says the Broadway CPU is using a 90 nm SOI process, wouldn't it make sense that 970FX would be what the Broadway is based from. Then again I don't know how much that would cost or heat it would produce. If anyone can help give me some more clarity it would be apprciated.
What IBM CPU is Wii's Broadway a derivative of?
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patroclus02
Newcomer
pc999 said:
why? 17W is very low power for high end processor, and what about the die size? it isn't big either..
970FX is quite unlikely as the candidate, it doesn't fit with the Wii's low-performance, low-price profile. 
Besides, its clockspeed, unless seriously lowered, doesn't fit with the rumored wii specs from IGN either.
Besides, its clockspeed, unless seriously lowered, doesn't fit with the rumored wii specs from IGN either.patroclus02
Newcomer
low-profile hardware should be relative.
Look at its competitors. PS3's cell and Xbox's 3 core CPU. I know Nintendo does not want to go after them, but, they should not keep so much behind, because they can get into a mistake already seen in N64 era : multiplataform games. For example, games like Metal Gear Solid could never be done for N64 because of its mass storage restrictions.
If they keep processing power too far a way from Xbox, chances are that this happends again. and that would be quite bad thing.
Look at its competitors. PS3's cell and Xbox's 3 core CPU. I know Nintendo does not want to go after them, but, they should not keep so much behind, because they can get into a mistake already seen in N64 era : multiplataform games. For example, games like Metal Gear Solid could never be done for N64 because of its mass storage restrictions.
If they keep processing power too far a way from Xbox, chances are that this happends again. and that would be quite bad thing.
patroclus02 said:
In the Dolphin era (before GCN) a lot of people said the same than you and the final result was a failure for Gamecube.
Nintendo needs an exclusive hardware, with exclusive games and is more easy to take exclusive games with less powerful hardware (less development cost) than with an expansive hardware.
And I think that is a low-power PowerPC 970FX since the official specs says 90nm SOI process and it seems that the PSU is a new one. My MacMini Core Duo has a PSU of 85W I don´t understand why the people is believing in the 39W limited consumption crap for Wii, is ridiculous and more with a new PSU for the system.
dream mode on:
2 core PWRficient CPU @ 2.4GHz
dream mode off
That would be a really nice CPU for a console system with > 1200 SpecInt and >2000 SpecFlop per core.
Link: http://www.pasemi.com/
2 core PWRficient CPU @ 2.4GHz
dream mode off
That would be a really nice CPU for a console system with > 1200 SpecInt and >2000 SpecFlop per core.
Link: http://www.pasemi.com/
Megadrive1988
Veteran
the Broadway CPU for Wii is..... the Broadway
Urian said:
Iwata (?) said it would cosume 50W, there is a interviewn that one translated somehere.
BYW Using a Lower power 970FX wouldnt be worst that eg dualcore Gekko like more 1+VMX per core, that would be cheaper and probably a greater performer too?
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Gamecube's AC adapter puts out 39W (12V DC x 3.25A). That doesn't mean that the Gamecube uses 39W when it's playing.Teasy said:
As far as I'm aware, Flipper and Gekko's process never changed, it was more economical to keep producing them at 0.18um than to shrink them down. So all Gamecubes would draw the same amount of power, regardless of when they were manufactured. As seen from the link provided in the Power Consumption of the Xbox 360 and other Consoles thread, we see that Gamecube draws 21W at the wall when running games. So after accounting for inefficiencies in the AC adapter, you're looking at probably 16W.
I was under the impression that Broadway would be a matured Gekko. We know that the PowerPC 750 architecture "grew up" into the PPC 970. Is the 970 compatible with code written for the 750? I know a tiny bit about x86 chips, so something like this is completely beyond me. Something 750 to 970ish with the extras of Gekko thrown in makes the most sense.
So the components inside are probably consuming somewhere in the vicinity of 25W. I've seen a few reports of Gamecube at 20W and yours drawing 30W. Most people seemed to be playing Mario Kart when measuring load. Which game were you testing with?swaaye said:
I don't have a watt meter, but I can check how quickly the meter is turning outside the house with the Cube off, then do the same with it on, and come up with how much mine draws while playing some games...
Teasy said:
Ask and you shall be given
Original source
Here is One's translation
Orginal quote said:
My trans:
"For example, when playing normal games, Wii's power consumption is a little less than 50W and its cooling fan is spinning."
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I do hope there is some heavy irony involved here, but I can't be really sure as the smileys are missing.OtakingGX said:
Just for the record that won't work, beside the poor resolution of the external Wattmeter, there are intermittent equipment in a normal house, such as radiators, refridgerators etc. that would mess up your figures.
OtakingGX said:
Ah right, I've heard 39w quoted and assumed that was some kind of measurment, I didn't realise it was just the maximum output of GC's PSU. So in fact GC consumed more like 20-25w, thanks for the info.
So Wii will consume around twice the power of GC (despite using much more power efficient tech like 90nm chips and 1T-Sram-Q ect). Well that ends any talk of Wii simply being a 50% overclocked GC with more ram then..
Oh and thanks for the link hupfinsgack.
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I don't remember which game I had in. It may have been RE4. It was many months ago. If I remember, I'll measure it again. But it was a bit above 30W (32W maybe). My cube is a launch cube so maybe the AC adapter's efficiency is going downhill, if the 25W reading by the other fellow is to be believed.
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