IBM Confirms that Nintendo's Wii U Has a Power-based CPU

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What a piece of crap.

They should be ashamed of themselves for selling something like this.

I am not sure who would even buy it. $300 dollars for 5 year old hardware... or $350 if you get the 32 gig version (the extra 16 gig costing the manufacturer about $3 dollars, but somehow translating into an extra 50 dollars retail).

This is a POS and no one should buy it.
 
"According to a tweet, the CPU is not based on IBM's Power 7 chip, as previously believed, but rather a Power-based CPU. "

Stupid and it's a contradiction

We know just as much as we did yesterday. Not only that it could still be a Power 7 chip since a Power 7 chip IS a Power-based CPU, but it could be ANY Power based chip.
 
@southernshark next time, before making such a stupidly retarded comment, check your facts:

The Pro model, which is currently sold out for pre-orders, includes a $60 game, a couple of accessories (about $60 if bought separately) AND 32 GB of memory instead of 8 GB. That's a lot of extra value for just $50.
 
I know I catch heat for this but so what. I personally think Nintendo's time in the sun as a console manufacture has come and gone. The Wii was a awesome concept they seriously dropped the ball on with games. I had a Wii the Christmas the year it released and I was like DAMN this thing is awesome.

Then I waited for games
Zelda
Metroid
Mario
Dragon Ball Z
RE4

to me where the only decent games ever released for the console. Nintendo really dropped the ball on pushing manufactures to come out with new decent games. As far as graphics go they where not on par with the Xbox or PS3 but that was ok they made up for it with the controls.

This new console looks like Nintendo is doing the same dropping the ball by using a old out dated processor. Why not go ahead and use a new processor to get some more performance out of the product.
 
[citation][nom]southernshark[/nom]What a piece of crap.They should be ashamed of themselves for selling something like this.I am not sure who would even buy it. $300 dollars for 5 year old hardware... or $350 if you get the 32 gig version (the extra 16 gig costing the manufacturer about $3 dollars, but somehow translating into an extra 50 dollars retail).This is a POS and no one should buy it.[/citation]

32-8=24.

Basic math, I'm not sure who would even know this. 😉

And since when is price and demand based around logic? You want something, pay this price or don't buy it. Just because it cost me $10 off eBay, doesn't mean I can't sell it to you for $2000.
 
[citation][nom]southernshark[/nom]What a piece of crap.They should be ashamed of themselves for selling something like this.I am not sure who would even buy it. $300 dollars for 5 year old hardware... or $350 if you get the 32 gig version (the extra 16 gig costing the manufacturer about $3 dollars, but somehow translating into an extra 50 dollars retail).This is a POS and no one should buy it.[/citation]

But how else are you going to waggle through your favorite rehashes? With modern graphics!? Blasphemy!
 
Combined with a few well known developers saying the CPU is causing difficulty with ports, this doesn't look good. Broadway is an ancient architecture, that's based on Gamecube/PowerPC G3 era stuff. Even with the eDRAM cache, multicore support and a higher clock rate, the instructions per clock can't be up to par with something modern like Power7. And plus, with a 75W MAX power draw, the CPU probably only has 25w or so to work with. At least the GPU and RAM are better than the current consoles.
 
[citation][nom]ddpruitt[/nom]"According to a tweet, the CPU is not based on IBM's Power 7 chip, as previously believed, but rather a Power-based CPU. "Stupid and it's a contradictionWe know just as much as we did yesterday. Not only that it could still be a Power 7 chip since a Power 7 chip IS a Power-based CPU, but it could be ANY Power based chip.[/citation]

Following the tweet thread the context is clear, they backtracked on saying it's Power7 based and apologized for saying so, then said it's simply Power based. That could mean Broadway, that could mean Power6, etc. And developers are complaining about the CPU but praising the GPU, so it looks like lipstick on a Broadway is likely.
 
[citation][nom]tipoo[/nom]Following the tweet thread the context is clear, they backtracked on saying it's Power7 based and apologized for saying so, then said it's simply Power based. That could mean Broadway, that could mean Power6, etc. And developers are complaining about the CPU but praising the GPU, so it looks like lipstick on a Broadway is likely.[/citation]

If it's simply Power based, then even if it's Broadway-based, it could be a well-modified version of it that is simply difficult for these devs to code for. Heck, look at the Cell CPU in the PS3. We probably still don't get the full performance out of it, but it's a very fast CPU for the time if it can be fully utilized. Maybe there are again many cores or there's something else going on. I think that it's best to not make assumptions about it until we have more concrete evidence.
 
We still know for a fact that it is out of order execution. Broadway was in order execution. So it can't be Broadway. And only Power 7 and Power 5 are out of order execution.
 
[citation][nom]luciferano[/nom]If it's simply Power based, then even if it's Broadway-based, it could be a well-modified version of it that is simply difficult for these devs to code for. Heck, look at the Cell CPU in the PS3. We probably still don't get the full performance out of it, but it's a very fast CPU for the time if it can be fully utilized. Maybe there are again many cores or there's something else going on. I think that it's best to not make assumptions about it until we have more concrete evidence.[/citation]

Fair enough about not making assumptions, but it's almost certain it's either three or four cores, maybe four with one reserved for the OS, nothing crazy complex like the Cell.

[citation][nom]TheViper[/nom]We still know for a fact that it is out of order execution. Broadway was in order execution. So it can't be Broadway. And only Power 7 and Power 5 are out of order execution.[/citation]

Actually Broadway WAS out of order, it was one of the few things it had going for it at the time.
 
I also wonder how broad their GPGPU implementation that they mentioned is, if it's just used for texture decompression like Civ 5, or if it can be used to offload physics and AI to the GPU.
 
[citation][nom]tipoo[/nom](actually I may be wrong that broadway was OoO, I was sure it was but I can't find a source now)[/citation]

I could be wrong, but I don't think that it was OoO.
 
Nintendo has been taking some heat for an apparently sluggish processor in its Wii U console.
Click to expand...
The same sentiments were felt by many by the "improved" Gamecube edition with motion capture control called the Wii. If as stated in the article that this thing turns out to be a refreshed Wii chip, then I'm left absolutely baffled at Nintendo using a core design (but at least tweaked and updated) dating back OVER a decade ago - for the third time now! No wonder why complaints about processing inferiority are coming in from multiple sources. It's very apparent these days that Nintendo has lost its core-roots focus on what it used to mean to be Nintendo. All they look to be wanting to sell you is overpriced, way outdated, gimmicky hardware with clearly an uncertain path for quality software releases. Quality not quantity, remember that Nintendo? Let's at least hope the software side isn't so lackluster this go around.
 
[citation][nom]HotRoderx[/nom]I know I catch heat for this but so what. I personally think Nintendo's time in the sun as a console manufacture has come and gone. The Wii was a awesome concept they seriously dropped the ball on with games. I had a Wii the Christmas the year it released and I was like DAMN this thing is awesome. Then I waited for games ZeldaMetroidMarioDragon Ball Z RE4 to me where the only decent games ever released for the console. Nintendo really dropped the ball on pushing manufactures to come out with new decent games. As far as graphics go they where not on par with the Xbox or PS3 but that was ok they made up for it with the controls. This new console looks like Nintendo is doing the same dropping the ball by using a old out dated processor. Why not go ahead and use a new processor to get some more performance out of the product.[/citation]

IMO gameplay > graphics, so I'll take an interesting input-device over cpu / gpu improvements anytime.

Should also take into consideration that the next XBox will likely integrate kinect, increasing the cost of the device, meaning likely otherwise lowered specs ( likely approximately the same or little higher as / than WiiU ), and I seriously doubt Sony will release a high-cost device this time ( they suffered quite a bit because of it last time ).
 



I think we can agree that we know nothing of the current CPU. And even if it is a heavily modified Broadway it may not necessarily be a bad thing (after all Cell is a heavily modified PowerPC).
 
It cvost Nintendo let alone IBM way to much money to re purpose the Broadway based CPU as it is so dang old it would not be cable of speeds over 1ghz let alone does not have the architectur to be able to be a Multi-core based chip because the G3 chips were year before Multi-core and it dont have the supporting info structure in it to support that stuff.


 


I doubt that the next Xbox wouldn't be superior to the Xbox 360 in performance and if it doesn't beat the Wii U, then it's unlikely that it will really beat the Xbox 360.
 
[citation][nom]Bloob[/nom]IMO gameplay > graphics, so I'll take an interesting input-device over cpu / gpu improvements anytime. Should also take into consideration that the next XBox will likely integrate kinect, increasing the cost of the device, meaning likely otherwise lowered specs ( likely approximately the same or little higher as / than WiiU ), and I seriously doubt Sony will release a high-cost device this time ( they suffered quite a bit because of it last time ).[/citation]

Considering the xbox 360 acording to this article is more powerful than the WiiU, then I don't see how it would be possible for them to come out with a system that similar in power. Additionally "integrated kinect" is not possible with the xbox console in the way you are thinking. Who would want a sensor built into the console, which is usually hidden from sight / buried behind piles of games or inside a closed cabinet? It might have a sensor bar that comes with it, and have the software integrated.

Additionally the xbox chips have seen over a 50% reduction in size (and heat) since their release. I am positive that Microsoft could use the exact same chips and scale up the frequency by 50-60% if they wanted to, but why bother when you can use a 32nm fab instead of 65.
 
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