Wii U hardware discussion and investigation *rename

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That's not right. 800MHz means DDR3-1600 data rate (hence Double Data Rate...):
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/file/product/ds_k4b4g1646b_rev10-1.pdf (identified in PCPer's teardown)

400 MHz fCK for 800Mb/sec/pin, 533MHz fCK for 1066Mb/sec/pin,
667MHz fCK for 1333Mb/sec/pin, 800MHz fCK for 1600Mb/sec/pin
Click to expand...
4 chips * (1600Mb/s*16) ->102,400Mb/s -> 12.8GB/s

edit:

Just realized his WiiU has Hynix memory instead: H5TQ4G63MFR-12C 4Gbit (256Mx16) -> 800MHz clock (same specs).
www.hynix.com/inc/pdfDownload.jsp?path=/datasheet/Databook/Databook_2Q'2012_ALL.pdf

So yeah... DDR3-1600.
 
Give mucho thanks and condolences to Anand for sacrificing his unit the photos and die size measurements. Wii hardly knew U. :p

CPU: 32.76mm^2
GPU: 156.21mm^2
3rd die: 2.65mm^2
 
Ika said:
I'm not here to state if the Wii-U is more powerful or not, because I can't provide proof for you, but I'm sure that these games are using ported engines, engines not built up from scratch with the Wii-U in mind.
The other consoles, where the majority of the games and engines will come at the beginning are all GPU bond hardware, while the Wii-U is a CPU bond/limited console, so one would need an entirely different approach and solutions to get the best out of it. (It would be nice to see Rage on the Wii-U for example, I wonder if it would be possible to use GPU-transcode to "help" the CPU, like how it's possible on the PC)

I'm sure that sooner or later devs will learn how to achieve the same or better visuals what you can see on the xbox360 or on the PS3 because the GPU is probably more powerful (I assume).
Click to expand...

You're assuming the GPU has enough left-over power to do GPGPU, when currently most evidence (mainly chip size) points otherwise. It's probably just something slower than a redwood and I wouldn't be surprised if the edram is only there to assure BC and cheaper ports from the X360.

I for one have accepted that, like the Wii before it, the Wii U doesn't have any magic powder that makes it a powerful console. It's really just weak and dirt-cheap and there's no other way around it.

Nintendo's hardware/electronics division is proving to be a one-trick poney. Just make something that doesn't look too horrible and extra-cheap and hope the ideas + hard work from the other divisions make up for it.


It's too bad, I probably would've been a day-one buyer (like I was for the Wii BTW) if I believed this console could survive 4 years or so without making my eyes hurt.
Since it's not, I'll just see what the actual next-gen consoles are capable of.
 
I fucking thought DDR 2133 was more likely. That is :
- using 1.65V instead of 1.5V
- high latency such as CL11
- damn, there is a ridiculous oversupply of DDR3.
 
Don't forget the touch screen controler of the Wii U, that thing is probably not cheap and has to be fit into the budget. Some trade-offs had to be made, but I still think they went too far with the RAM...
 
I think I read about a $80 cost for the Wii Game Pad a few monthes ago, a smallish LCD screen is quite cheap and they went for a very simple touch screen as in the first Nintendo DS and Tablet PC from a decade ago.
Likewise, 2GB RAM is easily explained by DDR3 chips being actually quite big. You could have had 512MB at less than half the bandwith but it would be stupid.
 
Yeah, so we know they went with a cheap screen, cheap touch interface, cheap controller battery, cheap RAM, cheap CPU, cheap flash storage, no optical audio port or wired networking (because it would be cheaper). We can probably safely assume the GPU is also anemic and not filled with magical Nintendo fairy dust that will compensate for every other shortcoming.

I'd also love to see the "fuzzy" math they're using to claim they are selling these at a loss. They must be counting all the R&D and marketing expenses.
 
I'm thinking maybe the best way to look at this is like a Next Gen PS2 with the Embedded Ram being the VRAM but the slower ram can also be used as VRAM for things that are off screen.
 
Cheap or not, it still costs more than an X360 or PS3 controller. They also have a custom optical drive, internal flash storage and it starts to add up, making the system more expensive to manufacture than the current HD consoles...
 
wii_u_power2dpav.png


33.0W while running a game...
 
Laa Yosh, the optical drive is not that custom, it's bog down standard Blu-Ray but without the license for playing movies, and probably an agreement only single-layer discs will be used.
 
Really, 31.2 Watt when doing nothing compared to 33 Watt when playing Super Mario U? Really?
 
LXFBN said:
What's the die size for 32MB of eDRAM at 40nm?
Click to expand...

TSMC's 40nm eDRAM should give 37mm^2, but there will probably be design overheads/redundancies for I/O and also increasing yield. It may end up around 1/3rd of the die, but it's a pretty rough guess.
 
AlStrong said:
TSMC's 40nm eDRAM should give 37mm^2, but there will probably be design overheads/redundancies for I/O and also increasing yield. It may end up around 1/3rd of the die, but it's a pretty rough guess.
Click to expand...

So we're looking at the actual GPU itself being ~100mm^2?
 
Perhaps. There's probably going to be some more miscellaneous silicon for I/O controllers (USB/ODD/WiFi) or other things (i.e. DSP, GamePad image processing).

*shrug*
 
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