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http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=13482
Revolution to be "2.5 times more powerful than Cube"
Rob Fahey 17:07 07/12/2005
Nintendo's next-gen system won't match power of rivals, focuses firmly
on innovation
Developers speaking to GamesIndustry.biz this week have commented that
the the Revolution console, hardware kits for which began shipping to
third parties recently, is shaping up to be around 2.5 times more
powerful than GameCube.
Up until the past week or so, developers close enough to Nintendo's
inner circle to have seen any Revolution hardware were working with
development kits that were simply GameCube kits with mock-ups of the
"wand" controller attached - a clear signal, if any were required, that
the system is more about innovative control than about the hardware
specs.
Now, however, Nintendo has spoken to developers in more depth about its
hardware plans for the new system - and has begun shipping more
advanced development kits to selected third-parties, featuring early
versions of some of the chips which will appear in the final console.
An article published by US website IGN this morning revealed some
details of the console, and several developers today have spoken to
GamesIndustry.biz to help fill in the gaps.
The picture we're building up of the final console is as follows; the
Cube will be powered by the IBM CPU codenamed Broadway, which is very
similar to the Gekko CPU used in the GameCube, but runs at around twice
the clock speed and offers potentially two to three times the overall
performance, and the ATI graphics chip codenamed Hollywood.
While Broadway is well-understood by developers, the ATI part remains
"a bit of a black box", according to one senior developer we spoke to.
"We have theoretical throughput figures and stats from Nintendo, but
nobody's seen the hardware yet - we're just treating it like it's a
faster version of the GameCube GPU, at the moment."
How much faster exactly it will be remains to be seen, but the chip -
which "seems to be an evolution of the Radeon range" according to our
source - will probably mirror the CPU by running at around twice to
three times the speed of the existing part.
In terms of RAM, the system is well-known to boast 512MB of Flash RAM
which can be used to store save games and downloaded content, but this
will not be accessible to developers, we were told. What they'll have
available is 96MB of main memory, built on the same 1T-SRAM
architecture as the Cube, and "a few megs here and there for other
stuff" - such as 3MB of on-board memory on the graphics chip, which
will be used for a frame buffer. "That's plenty, since the Revolution
isn't supporting HDTV," one developer added.
As for the storage media the Revolution will use, "they're pretty much
standard DVDs," we were told, with capacity similar to current PS2 and
Xbox discs. "The only clever thing about the drive, really, is that you
can put the little Cube discs into it despite being a slot-loading
drive - I think that's the first time you've been able to do that with
a slot loader."
In other words, what Nintendo is planning to ship is a system which is
no more than around twice to three times as powerful as the current
generation GameCube - indeed, more than one developer who has access to
the hardware specs suggested "about 2.5 times the power" as the
benchmark for the new system.
Although this makes the Revolution significantly less powerful than the
PS3 or Xbox 360, developers we spoke to were upbeat about the machine.
"You can basically treat it like a current generation machine," one
told us. "The time it'll take to ramp up to developing on this is
basically nil - we can just work on a PC or maybe an Xbox, and then
improve the quality of our assets when we move to the Revolution. Or
even work on a Cube, in fact. The libraries are very similar."
"We could do a game for this in a few months," commented another
developer. "Developing games is going to be easy, the challenge is
going to be using the controller properly."
The approach mirrors Nintendo's strategy with the DS, which is far less
powerful than its rival the PlayStation Portable but offers an
innovative interface which has been a hit with gamers and has had major
success in the mass market.
Crucially, the low specification will also allow Nintendo to score a
victory in terms of pricing; speculation is already rife that the
Revolution could enter the marketplace at $149 or even lower,
suggesting a sub-GBP 100 price point at a time when the Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3 still retail for three times that price.
Revolution to be "2.5 times more powerful than Cube"
Rob Fahey 17:07 07/12/2005
Nintendo's next-gen system won't match power of rivals, focuses firmly
on innovation
Developers speaking to GamesIndustry.biz this week have commented that
the the Revolution console, hardware kits for which began shipping to
third parties recently, is shaping up to be around 2.5 times more
powerful than GameCube.
Up until the past week or so, developers close enough to Nintendo's
inner circle to have seen any Revolution hardware were working with
development kits that were simply GameCube kits with mock-ups of the
"wand" controller attached - a clear signal, if any were required, that
the system is more about innovative control than about the hardware
specs.
Now, however, Nintendo has spoken to developers in more depth about its
hardware plans for the new system - and has begun shipping more
advanced development kits to selected third-parties, featuring early
versions of some of the chips which will appear in the final console.
An article published by US website IGN this morning revealed some
details of the console, and several developers today have spoken to
GamesIndustry.biz to help fill in the gaps.
The picture we're building up of the final console is as follows; the
Cube will be powered by the IBM CPU codenamed Broadway, which is very
similar to the Gekko CPU used in the GameCube, but runs at around twice
the clock speed and offers potentially two to three times the overall
performance, and the ATI graphics chip codenamed Hollywood.
While Broadway is well-understood by developers, the ATI part remains
"a bit of a black box", according to one senior developer we spoke to.
"We have theoretical throughput figures and stats from Nintendo, but
nobody's seen the hardware yet - we're just treating it like it's a
faster version of the GameCube GPU, at the moment."
How much faster exactly it will be remains to be seen, but the chip -
which "seems to be an evolution of the Radeon range" according to our
source - will probably mirror the CPU by running at around twice to
three times the speed of the existing part.
In terms of RAM, the system is well-known to boast 512MB of Flash RAM
which can be used to store save games and downloaded content, but this
will not be accessible to developers, we were told. What they'll have
available is 96MB of main memory, built on the same 1T-SRAM
architecture as the Cube, and "a few megs here and there for other
stuff" - such as 3MB of on-board memory on the graphics chip, which
will be used for a frame buffer. "That's plenty, since the Revolution
isn't supporting HDTV," one developer added.
As for the storage media the Revolution will use, "they're pretty much
standard DVDs," we were told, with capacity similar to current PS2 and
Xbox discs. "The only clever thing about the drive, really, is that you
can put the little Cube discs into it despite being a slot-loading
drive - I think that's the first time you've been able to do that with
a slot loader."
In other words, what Nintendo is planning to ship is a system which is
no more than around twice to three times as powerful as the current
generation GameCube - indeed, more than one developer who has access to
the hardware specs suggested "about 2.5 times the power" as the
benchmark for the new system.
Although this makes the Revolution significantly less powerful than the
PS3 or Xbox 360, developers we spoke to were upbeat about the machine.
"You can basically treat it like a current generation machine," one
told us. "The time it'll take to ramp up to developing on this is
basically nil - we can just work on a PC or maybe an Xbox, and then
improve the quality of our assets when we move to the Revolution. Or
even work on a Cube, in fact. The libraries are very similar."
"We could do a game for this in a few months," commented another
developer. "Developing games is going to be easy, the challenge is
going to be using the controller properly."
The approach mirrors Nintendo's strategy with the DS, which is far less
powerful than its rival the PlayStation Portable but offers an
innovative interface which has been a hit with gamers and has had major
success in the mass market.
Crucially, the low specification will also allow Nintendo to score a
victory in terms of pricing; speculation is already rife that the
Revolution could enter the marketplace at $149 or even lower,
suggesting a sub-GBP 100 price point at a time when the Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3 still retail for three times that price.