Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia (
More info?)
Mark Leuck wrote:
> Nvidia tried that with their first card that could play Sega games,
> didn't turn out so well. The companies you mention make money on
> games not hardware which they take a bath on
>
> "Damaeus" <no-mail@hotmail.invalid.net> wrote in message
> news:q8af709dilbggpsv0bcc8gnk1ro2a4kpqr@4ax.com...
> > Would there be any advantage to a company coming out with a
> > proprietary video card? Like suppose Sony came out with a PS2
> > video card, or Microsoft had an XBox video card. Nintendo could
> > have one, too. Hell, maybe even Atari would come out with one, or
> > some other company. It would allow you to play PS2 games on your
> > PC, but not if you have an XBox card.
> >
> > But if sensible, imagine the coolness of building a PC with game
> > cards from PS2, Xbox and Nintendo, along with your ATI or nVidia
> > card. Talk about the best of all worlds. To me, that would be an
> > ultimate gaming machine.
> >
> > Damaeus
Game consoles work on a totally different technology than computers.
Although the components are similar, the placement and design is a lot
different.
The following is partially speculation, since I'm too lazy to re-read
the specs in order to back my ass up. I believe I'm right, but any
disputes will be welcome:
The GameCube doesn't require a southbridge, because it doesn't have a
USB controller or PIO/DMA controller for the dvdrom drive. Everything
is directed straight to the main processor, the ATI Radeon 8500 GPU
being the only component besides the memory that is not built in to the
CPU.
The XBOX has an Nvidia GPU, Intel PIII processor(although it's still
questionable if they didn't use Celerons), and a northbridge.
The southbridge controls the controllers, modem, hard drive, DVDROM,
but isn't considered a southbridge since it directly interfaces with
the CPU.
The PS2, I believe, is the only console that has a northbridge and a
southbridge which function exactly like a computer.
It has the Emotion Engine, which controls all of the graphics and audio
processing.
Then it has a CPU to handle everything else.
The northbridge interfaces the memory with the Emotion Engine and the
CPU.
The southbridge handles the network adapter, DVDROM drive, hard drive,
IEEE and USB ports, and controllers.
As far has manufacturing a proprietary video card for a computer, it
isn't possible and it would arise legal issues.
Piracy would become rampant, all someone would have to do would be make
an ISO2 out of a disk, use Nero Image Drive or a similar drive
emulation program... and there you go, free games for all.
It isn't a possibility unless the proprietary operating system used for
each console was sold, which means it would be cracked and duplicated,
creating free consoles for everyone.
Not to mention, the operating systems they use are not 32bit x86, so
you'd have to have a special processor.
I think in order to be productive if they sold a card, they'd have to
sell it at least 5% more expensive than the console itself, or else
people would just buy the card.
My P4 runs at 3.6Ghz.... my PS2 runs at 300mhz... take your pick =P.
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