News: Industry News | Nintendo Wii More Powerful Than First Thought? Page 1

Industry News | Nintendo Wii More Powerful Than First Thought?

19.06.2006

MoSys, Inc. (Nasdaq:MOSY), the industry's leading provider of high-density system-on-chip (SoC) embedded memory solutions, today announced that Nintendo's upcoming Wii video game console uses MoSys' patented 1T-SRAM technology to implement the very high performance memory within the Wii console's graphics system.

This is the latest result from the more than six-years-long technical collaboration between the two companies. Previous generations of MoSys' 1T-SRAM technology were incorporated in Nintendo's earlier game console, the Nintendo GameCube, in 1999, and shipped in multi-million quantities. The newest 1T-SRAM implementations embedded within the Wii console are fabricated using NEC Electronics' advanced 90nm CMOS-compatible embedded DRAM process technology. These high speed and ultra low latency memories are used as the main embedded memory on the graphics chip and in an additional external memory chip.

"We are pleased that Nintendo has again chosen our 1T-SRAM to power their latest generation game console," said Chet Silvestri, chief executive officer at MoSys, Inc.

"Designing the Wii console required an incredible list of breakthroughs in technology and innovation. The performance delivered by MoSys' 1T-SRAM technology is an important element of our solution," said Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director, General Manager, Integrated Research & Development Division at Nintendo. "The graphic performance of Wii benefits from MoSys' ability to develop highly innovative and dependable embedded memory products."

Stay tuned for further updates...

Source: Business Wire

Comment on this article

Comments

«s previous1next »

Darkflame 19.06.2006#1

I am sure this was announced ages ago.
Nintendo has always had a preferance for very fast Ram. (moreso then quanity of Ram..compare the Xbox to the Gamecube)

Fast ram fits Nintendos ideas.
eg.
Near-instant loading times, quite, power effiant.

Of course, its also good for graphics, but no moreso then the gamecube really.

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+.

Fenton 19.06.2006#2

This console is going to be one hell of a fucking quick/optomised beast.

J4K 19.06.2006#3

Nintendo has this console designed like clock-work it seems. I no longer have concerns about the power of the console because I know Nintendo is working hard behind the scenes!

( Edited on 19.06.2006 16:39 by jacob4000 )

Cheesing It Up 19.06.2006#4

Sounds good, but nothing shocking.

Nintendo know how to design a console by now Smilie

Robbo 19.06.2006#5

It sounds like just name dropping to me. With the PS3 being confirmed for November last week, it might be NIntendo's way of keeping themselves in the spot light.

Marzeee 19.06.2006#6

My friend said the wii didnt look very good graphics and I said Who bloody cares! it not meant to be. He's such a PS3 fanboy.

HazukiSan 19.06.2006#7

Marzy said:
My friend said the wii didnt look very good graphics and I said Who bloody cares! it not meant to be. Hes such a PS3 fanboy.

Explaining to someone how a console isn't supposed to have good graphics is nigh on impossible. Casual gamers seem to think that graphics just improve with no increase to manufacturing price or causing development issues.

OLU1701 19.06.2006#8

A maximum of five times the power of the Gamecube should be more than sufficient to produce mind blowing games with decent to awesome graphics. I pretty sure the Wii can adequately manage that. Smilie

godofgames1 19.06.2006#9

i wonder what nintendo has left in store for the Wii

hells ya

Zapp 19.06.2006#10

godofgames1 said:
i wonder what nintendo has left in store for the Wii

loads more my friend!!! Smilie

anyway great news!!!

I see all these people insulting the Nintendo corporation because of the lack of mature content. Yet there is something about Nintendo (at least their games) that strikes a certain unadulterated feeling of joy!!! Pokemon Y - 1048-9263-5562

Show Spoiler

dojo 19.06.2006#11

I think the next step is to announce its joining with NEC. Seriously, Nintendo seems to be "joining forces" with loads of companies recently - obviously for its own benefit - but think, theres

BT Openzone
The Cloud
McDonalds
Various Charity Companies
Opera
etc.

Only a matter of time before Apple gets added to that list...or not

amtrid 19.06.2006#12

its great news. just remember that the gamecube could push more polys that both the xbox and the ps2. with re4 pushing some 18 milion while tyhe most detailed xbox one was at 16 million. ninty know how to design architecture but they need to tell developers how to use it early on.

jesusraz 19.06.2006#13

The GameCube is technically on a par with the XBOX, but has major failings that stopped developers from getting the most out of it. RE4 is the most attractive game of this generation (out of PS2/GC/XBOX) and Zelda looks to top that.

If the Wii is just as reported, 2-3 times more powerful than the GC...AND it's easier to tap this power, then the difference between games won't always be THAT noticeable to the average human eye.

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

UNITE714: Weekly Prayers | Bible Verses

Laurelin 20.06.2006#14

I think the next step is to announce its joining with NEC. Seriously, Nintendo seems to be "joining forces" with loads of companies recently

That's not entirely accurate. Since every Console is a computer and every manufacturer for IC-parts is potentially working delivering some small part in the mainboard of a console, it is not surprising to have NEC aboard.
2nd: The NEC-guys developed the PC-Engine/Turbografx - a higly wonderful console back in the early 90s(?). With Bonk, Parodius, Gradius a lo of classic games were released on this gem or best ported from arcade-boards from all gaming platforms of this time.

The GameCube is technically on a par with the XBOX[...]

Yes, I think so, too. And further on, I think the Cube would have been far better in graphics than every xbox or ps2 if the developers had put work into genuine engines for this wonderful machine and not only ported them from other consoles. Think Prince 2(?) (more linke 'prince 5') for instance: Normal-mapping only for Xbox? Bullshit, With a bit of work the cube-version would have blown every other version away. But the Prince-titles looked nicely and I was happy that Ubisoft released it for Cube at all.
The Cube is a heck of a fast polygon-displaying machine - far advanced to every other consoles.

I find your lack of faith disturbing!

SexyMarioMan 21.06.2006#15

I think we can all sleep soundly peoples.
Nintendo is gonna be the @#$!!! Smilie

dartmonkey 21.06.2006#16

Obviously great avatar. Top 5.

( Edited on 21.06.2006 01:41 by artmonkey )

Less posty, more gamey.

SexyMarioMan 21.06.2006#17

Smilie lol thanks. Yours goes a step further

tiamat1990 21.06.2006#18

I have no idea what the hell all that just meant Smilie

darthcupcake 23.06.2006#19

Well there aren't many load times on the GameCube compared to the horrible load times on the Xbox and PS2, so I figure that's just the way Nintendo is.

amtrid 24.06.2006#20

no its a memory thing. nintendo always look to keep load timesdown as loading isnt a good part to any game. the on board 512 mb of internal memory as well as the other memory on the gpu and cpu, edram and 1tsram. will allow for almost instant loading and will allow the graphics engine to push something amazing. just think twilight princess. is a gamecube game. graphics haven't really been updated. miyamoto says he hasn't used 100% of nthe gamecubes power so wii is more than capable. always remember that to do hd graphics u need about 3-4 times the power. this is why nintendo look outspeced. when running on a normal tv they will be completely comparible. infact ninty may pull something out of the box on that one. also they all have 512 internal mb of memory, all next gen consoles, but the other need to dedicate a proportion of that to the hd side of things. the wii doesn't. the architecture of the wii is a beast and roughly 2.5-3 times more powerful than the gc. Smilie

Martin 24.06.2006#21

amtrid said:
no its a memory thing. nintendo always look to keep load timesdown as loading isnt a good part to any game. the on board 512 mb of internal memory as well as the other memory on the gpu and cpu, edram and 1tsram. will allow for almost instant loading and will allow the graphics engine to push something amazing. just think twilight princess. is a gamecube game. graphics havent really been updated. miyamoto says he hasnt used 100% of nthe gamecubes power so wii is more than capable. always remember that to do hd graphics u need about 3-4 times the power. this is why nintendo look outspeced. when running on a normal tv they will be completely comparible. infact ninty may pull something out of the box on that one. also they all have 512 internal mb of memory, all next gen consoles, but the other need to dedicate a proportion of that to the hd side of things. the wii doesnt. the architecture of the wii is a beast and roughly 2.5-3 times more powerful than the gc.

Comedy poster?

The ram in the wii is unknown. The 512MB flash memory is for storage.

GAMER7.

Baby Mario Bro 03.07.2006#22

I'm sure the wii will be very powerful.
But I dont care about specs I just want brawl! Smilie

Laurelin 03.07.2006#23

No matter if amtrid mistakingly took the internal storage-RAM for memory-RAM - I think it's right what he says.
That's the reason why I do not make any weep about poor-Wii-graphics. Forget it, Wii is even with X360 and PS3. Maybe it has not the HD, maybe we have not as many persons running aorund and consuming KI-memory-capacity, but beside that we have all the graphics in the world - if you allow me to "quote" James Bond
With Twilight princess not using the entire capabilities from GC: I think amtrid is right again. The Cube is capable of graphics like Twilight Princess, Resident Evil 4 and Starfox Adventure (it's graphic is more spectacular when you consider Starfox being something of a launch title for Cube!) and more!

So I think Wii is virtually even more powerful than the 2-3 times stated in the headline. And furthermore: graphics is all about subjectivity (is there a word like this in english?), you can nor measure 'good graphics'.

this posting ist entirely imho...

I find your lack of faith disturbing!

«s previous1next »