Broadway

[BigTac]

http://arstechnica.com/index.ars
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/revolution.ars

This comes from a credible source. It's a long read. And very interesting coming from someone who actually knows stuff not just from some guy with a blog. And now with Nintendo saying the specs might never be released you all should keep this site in your news list.

[Kurtle Squad]

I skim-read....It was okay.

How much larger is a PS3 compared to a Revo?!

[demonmike04]

I skim-read....It was okay.

How much larger is a PS3 compared to a Revo?!
I cant remember the actual dimensions of PS3, but just compare revo's size to an XBOX 360, and remember PS3 will be larger than 360.
I like the sound of broadway, and if its as good as it sounds, this will be a shock to the competitors, but Nintendo have already announce the graphics shall not be significantly different.

[nicolasmasset]

Yeah, read that article earlier today, indeed some very interesting stuff!

[system_error]

The article has a few logical errors but it is quite interesting. I am sure NEC will provide a good LSI and IBM is most likely using the PowerPC970FX in a dual core form. Nintendo knows what they are doing.

[DCK]

Sounds pretty good. It seems like it'll be like a Cube on steroids rather than a 360 lite after all.

[The fish]

Cube on steriods aint bad. resident evil 4 or metorid prime X 5 =uber graphics

[Schpickles]

It's an interesting read. Remember that they are only speculating, though - complete guess work, albeit intelligent guesswork.

This sounded interesting, and plausible:


A large on-die L2 cache, possibly in combination with a larger off-chip 1T SRAM cache, will give the processor's integer and branchy code performance a huge boost. It will also make the architecture more developer-friendly, insofar as it's a more traditional two- or four-threaded design with enough cache to do at least some justice to all running threads if implemented carefully.


Nintendo showed with the Cube that they are good at getting "bang for buck" out of cheaper hardware. I'm still sceptical as to whether they can afford a G5 core as ArsTechnia claim... I still expect it to be G4-based, perhaps with multiple G4 cores. However, their educated guesses are sensible ones.

I don't agree with their claim that the CELL and Xenon CPUs are poorly suited to physics and AI, compared to the PPC970 chips - that's all down to optimisation. With both those CPUs, you've got the power and flexibility to optimise. I'd find it hard to believe that somehow the revoluton would have better physics, AI or gameplay performance, purely through architecture alone... that's down to how well software libraries are optimised for these emerging chipsets.

I love this stage of the tech speculation, and I can't wait to find out what the rev's specs actually are.

[JonSt]

I love this stage of the tech speculation, and I can't wait to find out what the rev's specs actually are.

Remember though schpick, nintendo may never release them :grin:

[Pestneb]

Remember though schpick, nintendo may never release them :grin:
to the public directly, but they'll have several unhappy third party developers if they don't tell them what the specs are

[Schpickles]

lol - yeah. Having said that, they managed to hide a chunk of the N64 hardware away from developers, so you never know ;P

I don't think it's in violation of my NDA to say that on the DS developer site, you get some approximate performance figures for the system, so you're not shooting in the dark. I'd imagine Nintendo will do the same for revolution developers.

Personally, I think it makes sense for Nintendo not to release the figures. I don't think system specs is a good way of selling electronic goods to the mass market... certainly not when it comes to the complex stuff that surrounds games tech. I'd much rather that gaming hardware and software spoke for itself. It's quite obvious from the PS2's continuing success that great software line ups, good marketing and strong brand identity matter much more than system specs.

[system_error]

Technical specifications = good marketing. I claim that the majority of people who buy electronic stuff don't know enough to really judge the product. So if they hear something new which sounds good like HyperBurst they can personally justify a higher price for themself. Even a sign with "NAND GATE included" on the product would help to sell ;)


I disagree with Schpickles - I am quite sure that the Revolution will indeed use a PowerPC970 model for its main CPU. Also I believe that the LSI from NEC will be probably a UX6 which is known for high performance and low power. The UX7 won't be ready until late 2006 as far as I know. But like the ARS article it is only pure speculation!

[Shorty]

I don't think it's in violation of my NDA to say that on the DS developer site, you get some approximate performance figures for the system, so you're not shooting in the dark.It might be though, so I'll report you to them anyway.
Technical specifications = good marketing.Ah, but only if they're actually impressive/competitive enough.

[cubeboy101]

yes good info most definatly revo will be gamecentric and heavilly optermized just like cube before it im allso expecting some big catch on broadway maybe even a big catch on hollywood if the z buffer and mapping patents are true its all about maxing out the usable bandwidth at 480i 480p with big bandwidth fast ram and catch and a fast media drive disc set up theres no need for 512mb ram or dvd type drives efficancie and gameconsole type design is what nintendo are all about theres no reason whats so ever to go with pc style specs games are about the streaming of data not massive rams and multi tasking thats how you design a pc think of a games console as a hot hatch car and a pc as a lorry thats how it works bill and sony have lost site of wot a game console is poor out dated obselete control pads and slow dvd drives and expencive pc like design seems madness to me nintendos gamecentric appotch is far better im betting hollywood is loaded with volumetric and semi programmerable hardwired effects and is balanced to a 480 display allowing great graphics with out the expence of a top spec pc or ps3 type machine i allso think revo will be the best port system easily handling ps3/360/pc/mac/gamecube/ps2 ports ease of programming combined with all new 6 axis 3d controls = great games

[Innovance]

yes good info most definatly revo will be gamecentric and heavilly optermized just like cube before it im allso expecting some big catch on broadway maybe even a big catch on hollywood if the z buffer and mapping patents are true its all about maxing out the usable bandwidth at 480i 480p with big bandwidth fast ram and catch and a fast media drive disc set up theres no need for 512mb ram or dvd type drives efficancie and gameconsole type design is what nintendo are all about theres no reason whats so ever to go with pc style specs games are about the streaming of data not massive rams and multi tasking thats how you design a pc think of a games console as a hot hatch car and a pc as a lorry thats how it works bill and sony have lost site of wot a game console is poor out dated obselete control pads and slow dvd drives and expencive pc like design seems madness to me nintendos gamecentric appotch is far better im betting hollywood is loaded with volumetric and semi programmerable hardwired effects and is balanced to a 480 display allowing great graphics with out the expence of a top spec pc or ps3 type machine i allso think revo will be the best port system easily handling ps3/360/pc/mac/gamecube/ps2 ports ease of programming combined with all new 6 axis 3d controls = great games
:eek: I think i just witnessed a crime, the poor english language

lmao the 'catch'

sorry i dont usually talk about peoples spelling grammar or punctuation, but i think in this case people will be able to see where im coming from

[Nintendork]

whatch ur speeliing lawl

[ShadowV7]

why do you keep bumping old topics up when you can just as easy post in other threads that is recent and speelin tis veyr importnat

[Fierce_LiNk]

why do you keep bumping old topics up when you can just as easy post in other threads that is recent and speelin tis veyr importnat

Quoted for truth. Cubeboy, read your PMs.
[Locked]