UPDATE - Nintendo Begins Distributing Software Kit for New NX Platform

[JEMC]

drkohler said:

JEMC said:

Tachikoma could answer this a lot better than anyone else, but a Dev Kit is usually a mix of software and hardware.

During the first stages of a new console, devs work on powerful PCs with a "Virtual Machine" that simulates the theoretical power that the console will have, as well as the first iterations of the development software (aplications, libraries, etc needed to code the games).

Once the console gets the final specifications (which components will it have and at what frequency will they run), developers get final versions of those dev kits with the exact specs, so that they can port the games they have been working on to that console and tweak what they have to fix to make the game run on it. The software of the Dev Kit keeps being updated for years.

At least, that's what I think is a Dev Kit.

You think right.

It is ex4remely irritating to read through this thread (even the NeoGaf-type threads) and glance over the nonsense that is written.

At this stage, we are probably in the second or third iteration of DevUnits IF the new platform is supposed to appear in late 2016 as has been guessed by various random people. No thrid party will ever see a first (or even 2nd) gen DevKit, as you want to keep your secrets secret from any competitors. Initial iterations of DevUnits are always high-powered PCs, because the PC hardwre has to emulate "stuff" of the real new console hardware.

Didn't initial XBox One DevUnits have dual gpus? When you add an idiot like misterxmedia into the equation, you get superpowers and his blog.....

If this new console is to appear in late 2016, then it is highly unlikely to contain stuff like HBM2, 14nm parts, etc. That stuff is extremely expensive now (for medium/high end chips) and it will still be extremely expensive in early 2016 (when you have to start manufacturing the chips. Not even thinking about ordering the stuff which happens one to two years before manufacturing even starts). I seriously doubt Nintendo is planning to come out with a >$500 console...

First of all, thanks. It feels good to not be completely wrong .

And I agree with you on HBM and 14/16nm. Those are very new and expensive technologies, two concepts that doesn't fit into Nintendo's historical approach to console tech.