R420
11-17-2003, 10:50 AM
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=dev&aid=2567
IBM on board for Nintendo's next system
Rob Fahey 11:12 17/11/2003
Supercomputer power demonstrated using game console components
Computing giant IBM is now involved in chip design for all three
next-generation consoles, announcing late last week that it will be
providing processor technology for Nintendo's next games system.
The company demonstrated a supercomputer capable of performing 2
trillion operations per second, which it claimed was based on a
variation of its PowerPC technology which will be rolled out in
Nintendo's forthcoming hardware.
However, the system demonstrated was running on 1000 of the
processors, and was roughly the size of a television. IBM highlighted
the low power consumption and low heat of the individual components,
suggesting that it'll be useful in miniaturisation efforts - something
Nintendo has always been very keen on.
It's not clear whether the processors will be used in the "N5" home
console, the successor to the GBA or even in the mystery product which
Nintendo will unveil at E3 next May, but N5 does seem like the most
likely candidate.
This confirms what many technology commentators had speculated some
weeks ago - that the line-up of companies providing the core
technologies for Nintendo's future efforts is almost identical to
those working on the successor to Microsoft's Xbox, codenamed Xenon.
IBM - which is also one of Sony's technology partners on the
next-generation Cell microprocessor to be used in the PlayStation 3 -
will be replacing Intel as the supplier of core CPUs for Xenon, while
ATI, already announced as Nintendo's graphics technology partner going
forwards, will be replacing NVIDIA as Microsoft's provider for GPU
technology.
IBM hopes to offset the costs of building supercomputers based on this
technology - such as the forthcoming Blue Gene/L, which is being built
for a laboratory in California - by licensing and selling the chip
technology developed for them to game console manufacturers.
IBM on board for Nintendo's next system
Rob Fahey 11:12 17/11/2003
Supercomputer power demonstrated using game console components
Computing giant IBM is now involved in chip design for all three
next-generation consoles, announcing late last week that it will be
providing processor technology for Nintendo's next games system.
The company demonstrated a supercomputer capable of performing 2
trillion operations per second, which it claimed was based on a
variation of its PowerPC technology which will be rolled out in
Nintendo's forthcoming hardware.
However, the system demonstrated was running on 1000 of the
processors, and was roughly the size of a television. IBM highlighted
the low power consumption and low heat of the individual components,
suggesting that it'll be useful in miniaturisation efforts - something
Nintendo has always been very keen on.
It's not clear whether the processors will be used in the "N5" home
console, the successor to the GBA or even in the mystery product which
Nintendo will unveil at E3 next May, but N5 does seem like the most
likely candidate.
This confirms what many technology commentators had speculated some
weeks ago - that the line-up of companies providing the core
technologies for Nintendo's future efforts is almost identical to
those working on the successor to Microsoft's Xbox, codenamed Xenon.
IBM - which is also one of Sony's technology partners on the
next-generation Cell microprocessor to be used in the PlayStation 3 -
will be replacing Intel as the supplier of core CPUs for Xenon, while
ATI, already announced as Nintendo's graphics technology partner going
forwards, will be replacing NVIDIA as Microsoft's provider for GPU
technology.
IBM hopes to offset the costs of building supercomputers based on this
technology - such as the forthcoming Blue Gene/L, which is being built
for a laboratory in California - by licensing and selling the chip
technology developed for them to game console manufacturers.