NES5:(GCN 2)
CPU- I do not believe they'll continue with IBM this time, (they aren't) investing in R&D for a custom CPU would cost significantly more since IBM is already and will be busy with CELL. IBM would likely ask for something technologically advanced and a lot of money invested in the project for them to consider cutting some space and engineers from their best partner so far, Sony. Not to mention the risks of development divisions spying on what the other is doing, which would possibly end up in a bidding war for both of companies. The most likely scenario, NEC. Nintendo has already invested 4 billion in NEC not too long ago for Gamecube and so called "future technologies" (though that’s just PR press, not exactly meaning that it was a done deal back then that NEC would be onboard with the NES5). Nintendo is already satisfied with what NEC has done for them, and in terms of technology, NEC is probably the only one that I can see that could offer a parallel processor in the same vein as the CELL. Their 100mhz 8bit processors are spanking Intel's P4 3ghz buttocks by 4x times the performance. (Yikes!) Not to mention that the R&D for these cores is already complete, they have a functional chip. Nintendo could just come in, ask NEC for that processing core and alter it for their needs in functionality and performance, similar to what they did with IBM's PowerPC cores for Gamecube. It would be more cost-effective for Nintendo to come at a time when the core is already functional, rather than investing in it initially like Sony is doing currently with CELL.
GPU - Pretty much confirmed to be ATI at this point, unless by some strangeness that the ATI deal was for a future Gameboy (ATI is pretty much the king of mobile GPUs), or both, but since the reports that ArtX is not doing the R400 because they're busy at work for Nintendo's next chipset, I would think its safe to assume that ATI is doing the GPU for NES5. Since now ArtX is a part of ATI, unlike when they created the Flipper for the GCN. It is also very likely that NES5's GPU will have many familiarities with ATI's future product line of R500/R600s, killing 2 birds with one stone since ArtX's research & work for NES5 would also offer ATI its next lineup of VPU cores. There will of course be custom things that Nintendo wants, but I'm fairly certain that ArtX is making it with also a R500/R600 core in mind. It would indeed be foolish to cut off ATI's 2nd team solely for a custom VPU without receiving anything in return. Similar to what Nvidia did with the hybrid X-Box/GF3.
Memory - Thats the hard part, Rambus' Yellowstone looks to be a big no no at this point, but not completely impossible. Mosys hasn't announced anything new as of yet, (although they are rumored to be developing some new form of hybrid ram) 1T-SRAM simply wont cut it by 2004/2005 standards, no matter how efficient it is to get low latency, bandwidth is a big problem for next generation consoles. You need to feed those hungry CPU/VPUs with massive bandwidth so that they don’t choke. I've found RLDRAM which has some neat advantages, but like 1t-sram doesnt have the bandwidth you would expect for a 2004/2005 console. So I’m not sure exactly where they'll go. Maybe CRAM? Since NEC's Cpu is low in terms of transistor counts they may as well fill it up with embedded ram? *Shrugs*. If someone has any concrete info on MRAM please share, because I couldn't locate any sources that discuss its performance.
Optical drive - Matsushita again and most likely proprietary. I would safely bet that they'll be basing it off the blu-ray technology, mini blu-ray discs, full sized blu-ray discs, I don’t know. One thing is for sure, its going to be proprietary like Gamecube's optical disc. (which is based on miniDVD). If Matsushita pushes Nintendo enough, (which shouldn't take much prodding as Nintendo knows it must compete more effectively feature-wise next generation.) a blu-ray player may be a very likely possibility, manufactured with a second laser so as not to open any piracy holes. Though its likely going to be as Microsoft did, the player is built in but not out of the box. So that Nintendo doesnt have to pay the blu-ray consortium fees for every NES5 sold.
Built in ethernet at this point is a given for next gens, all 3 platforms.
Hard drive? Maybe not hardrives per se, but I’m pretty sure they'll have a way to store data in one form or another, built in the console. (not memory cards) Same for PS3 and Xbox2. The question is will large space be really necessary? Filling X-Box's HDD is already near downright impossible. Static memory, while it doesn't offer anywhere near the same space/price ratio that PC hard drives offer, they have a faster transfer speed. 256 or 512MB of ram should be sufficient to have saves up the wazoo, custom music and enough space to act as a buffer between the optical drive and the main memory, no? You also don’t open the doors wide open to piracy. TiVO features might kill the possibility though since they require massive amounts of space, I think that the PS3 and Xbox2 might go that way, although I don’t see Nintendo going with TiVO functionality. Its an extraneous feature that can only serve to drive up the initial price of the console, also by this time (mid to late'05-& possibly early '06) DVD recorders as well as television HDDs should be extremely affordable as standalone units.
Xbox2
CPU - ...Hard to say, what are their options? Intel ? AMD ? While they were a good choice for this generation, the next one will be a matter of parallelism and x86 based processors, or even 64bit ones. Intel has tons of different divisions studying future technologies, chemical/molecular/quantum technologies but lets face it, maybe in X-box 5. The strongest CPU companies in the world are IBM, NEC, Toshiba, Intel, & AMD. I can only see Intel or AMD in the picture for X-Box2 right now, and none of them have shown me a CPU roadmap for 2005/2006 that isn’t related to shrinking the core, overclocking and essentially the same repetitive process that we've seen on PCs since the last half of this decade. 64bit processing doesnt impress me that much, unless there's an important piece of information I've missed about them. But parallelism IMO, is the way to go. But then again maybe they don’t want to match the biggest boy on the block for the next gen, Nvidia seems to have hinted to this as well. This may have something to do with the 2 billion+ dollar hemmorhage they suffered this generation, & it's not that the company itself couldn't afford the loss, but even the almighty MS must answer to & placate its stockholders.
GPU - ATI is out of question at this point. They have 2 divisions, ATI Toronto and ArtX California, one is already busy with Nintendo's GPU development. ATI in no way would dedicate all their resources to next gen. console systems and leave the PC out in the cold, especially when they've got such a decisive victory against Nvidia with the 9700/9800 line. Although they are aware that the war is far from over. Microsoft could always pick ATI's Toronto GPU from the shelves, but even slight modifications to it for X-Box2 would slow down ATI just like what happened to Nvidia. One of their teams working on the NES5 plus some of their resources from their 2nd team dedicated to X-box2 would be insane IMO. I would say its Nvidia, they've commented on X-Box2 and even slightly hinted at where Microsoft was getting at, although Nvidia didn’t seem too excited compared to lets say the PS3 prospect. But then again this could just be a tactic to push Microsoft to invest tons of money into R&D to catch up with Sony. There's also the reports of Microsoft having really low royalty rates for X-box next, (again cutting back on spending) which doesn’t make it too attractive for either Nvidia or ATI to go with them. Nvidia already went to court with Microsoft because Nvidia wasnt satisfied enough with the royalty rates MS initially offered them. In that case neither Nvidia or ATI would go for X-box next, (unless of course the monetary settlement was agreeable) Microsoft also has the possibility of building their own GPU, they own and control DirectX, they have bought tons of video cards IPs in the past few years and they have been in the OpenGL ARB architecture review board for a while to then simply quit a few months ago. In other words, Microsoft knows about GPUs, they can build their own, they have the R&D cash for it and they have some of the best engineers in terms of graphic technology on their hands..
Memory - same as NES5 a bit ???
Hard drive is a given, still the question if they'll opt for small space with faster transfers or large space.
Ethernet - duh
Optical drive - AOD, advanced optical disk. It has an uncertain future due to Blu-ray, IIRC only Microsoft and Toshiba are supporting AOD, compared to Hitachi Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Pioneer Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Sharp Corporation, Sony Corporation, and Thomson Multimedia that are supporting blu-ray. This will be interesting but I think AOD = DOA (perhaps but AOD is a cheaper alternative to blu-ray, NEC seems to be supporting it as well. But BL's right in its lack of corporate backing & push.)
Xbox2 is somewhat in the corner when it comes to partners it seems :\ Off the shelf parts, IMO, absolutely will not cut it. Unless both Sony & NEC screw up royally with their respective processors. But then again, neither NES5 nor X-box next have to necessarily match the PS3 spec-wise, as we've seen plenty of examples that graphics alone does not ensure a console's success, (PS2) but where will that put X-box fans ? Teh dilemma!
I agree with BL's speculation on the next-gen's technical partners/& possibilities for the most part. As for the PS3 & GCN2 especially as their partners have already been announced & confirmed. However while they have the means, I cannot see MS deving their own GPU, nor re-spending an inordinate amount of money on R&D for various financial reasons. They will definitely compete technically, but they will be chasing instead of leading this go-round. Nintendo has scored by far the best of the GPU designers, PS3's overall design is extremely powerful albeit perhaps somewhat overly complex. MS is playing its cards close to its chest, but realistically don't expect an almost 2 billion dollar investment in R&D like Sony. I feel Nintendo may have even more vested in this console than MS.(as its possibly a make or break scenario for them)Iwata is no Yamauchi. I feel NEC as well could conceivably produce results similar to Cell, but pray to the gaming Gods that the X-Box2 does not go with off-the-shelf components. Because when it comes down to it, everyone will initially be chasing (technically & market-wise) the PS3.
Sacado de los foros de IGN
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). Sin embargo, si la potencia no acompaña, podriamos tener otro caso estilo PS2, es decir la peor parada de las consolas de nueva generación. Le va bien por las razones que todos conocemos, el continuo bombardeo de marketing en puntos adecuadeamente elegidos, cosa que Nintendo no consigue repetir desde epocas de la SNES lamentablemente ![[nop]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/nop.gif "no")
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(Palpa no eres el unico con fiesta esta semana ![[jaja]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/otrasonrisa.gif "otra sonrisa")
) ![[beer]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/brindando.gif "brindis")
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El lanzamiento de una consola pide un esfuerzo economico y logistico enorme, en su adecuada preparación para el lanzamiento se juega la aceptación directa, navegar con la corriente o enfrentarse a las olas... No póngo en duda la capacidad de Nintendo, ha demostrado estar a la altura pero, estar a la altura de Sony en un lanzamiento no le será tarea facil, el gigante japonés sabe de sobra lo bien que le vino las ganancias de la PS2 ultimamente e intentará por todos los medios no fallar o... hara kiri ![[carcajad]](/images/smilies/nuevos/risa_ani2.gif "carcajada")
![[toctoc]](/images/smilies/nuevos2/rompiendo.gif "machacando")
