WolfpackN64 on 21 June 2016
| silvergunner said: From what I can see, it all depends what processor architecture Nintendo use. They've got a choice between the ancient PowerPC G3 (Wii-U, Wii, GameCube), ARM (most handhelds) or X86 (PS4, Xbone, Xbox). If the processor chosen is the PowerPC G3 then they'll have backwards compatibility as standard. However the system won't look any much better graphically than the Wii-U as its got a weak FPU and lacks modern features like SIMD. If they choose an X86 or ARM we can expect a performance boost over the Wii-U at the cost of losing backwards compatibility. It will also make more developers jump on ship because those two processors are the most popular in the industry and support the modern features the G3 does not. In theory they could emulate the Wii U, but current PC Wii U emulators require hardware that's way beyond anything Nintendo would build into a system. On topic, by locking out the Wii Virtual Console, on Wii-U they'll probably just lock out the Wii-U virtual console as well. Nintendo are stuck in a mentality where they think they can con gamers into buying the same game 3 or 4 times by breaking compatibility. They even went as far as to lock out online play on Wii and DS ten days before Mario Kart was released on Wii-U (at the time, Wii was outselling Wii-U in some countries). Considering Wii-U is a total failure, if Nintendo do go for ARM or x86 we can see back compatibility been scrapped completely. This is looking likely as the long delay for NX suggests Nintendo are revising the hardware. |
It's a bit of a false choice. POWER8 is backwards compatible with all previous versions of POWER up to the oldest PowerPC ISA versions.
