Looks like Chipworks was also kind enough to take pictures of Wii U's CPU, codenamed Espresso, and send them for free to NeoGAF for some technical analysis. This is the shot of the entire CPU, with parts highlighted:
And this is a close up shot and analysis of Core 1 which has more L2 cache than the two others:
Based on what has been discussed there, those cores look nothing like a 45nm overclocked Broadway chip(Wii's CPU) as rumors have indicated, so we might actually be seeing a new CPU design based on PowerPC 750 for backwards compatibility purposes rather than just a simple Wii CPU shrink as it was first thought. Those are Broadway, Gekko(Gamecube's CPU) and PowerPC 750 die shots for comparison purposes:
Also, it's confirmed based on the shots that one CPU(Core 1) has more L2 cache(2MB for Core 1 vs 512kb for Core 0 and Core 2) than the others. And that's pretty much what has been discovered for the time being. So, seeing as the Broadway CPU shrink theory doesn't look to bright right now, how do you guys think that would affect the perception of CPU performance on Wii U? As i don't think it would be possible to run the games Wii U is running right now with 3 Wii CPU's duct-taped together, this CPU photo makes much more sense to me, even if I understand almost nothing in it.
