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Soundwave on 24 August 2016
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TheLastStarFighter said:
Soundwave said:

Well, except the patent says the SCD does not come with its power supply and needs to use the main unit's power supply. 

They could cut the CPU cores off the SCD Tegra X2 and put eDRAM there (for 1080P display). That probably makes some sense if they don't need any extra CPU power. 

I think we need to just accept this thing is not intended to compete against the PS4/XB Scorpio, even if it was, 2 TFLOP GPU wouldn't be good enough because now the baseline would be "well this thing still can't run Call of Dooty as well as a Neo and Scorpio", so it's a pissing match that Nintendo wouldn't win. 

It also says it doesn't have a video card and connects through the main console to the TV.  So it's not a "docking station" at all that you have been suggesting.

But in truth, that's just one possible setup in the sketch.  In all honesty, that patent really implies a home console, connected to TV and with a seperate controller.  And the SCD plugs into the home consle to boost processing, and the processing of other users in exchange for prizes.

So that patent doesn't suggest a Tegra at all, but rather a full home console.  But Nintendo could go in any manner of path with this system.  We just know they're both looking at a tablet-style device with changable controls, and an additional box that boosts processing.  We KNOW this from patents, but the rest of the details - including nVida - is speculation and rumor.

This is what the patent says:

 

  • Supplemental computing device(s) configured to detachably couple to a game console in order to provide processing resources for an increase of speed or quality of a user's gaming experience.
    •  
  • The supplemental computing device includes one or more processors, memory and one or more communication interfaces.
  • In some instances, the functionality of the device may be basic in order to keep a cost of the device relatively low. As such, the device may be free from drivers, video cards, user-control interfaces, and the like.
  • Users may share processing resources. Doing so can compensate a user in form of access to other supplemental computing devices maintained by other users, discounts on games, access to certain game content, points for redemption for digital or physical goods, social network badges, any form of value really.
With Nintendo it's probably for the best to keep your expectations low in terms of technology, otherwise you're likely to be dissapointed. They have no released a system with high end performance (or even mid-tier performance) in like 15 years and the NX concept presents several problems. 
Beyond all the other issues, the power gap between the SCD and base unit can't be so large, if its that large you're basically asking developers to have to make two seperate versions of each game for the price of one game ... which I don't see going over very well.
A 2:1 ratio with the Tegra X2 (500 GFLOPS to 1 TFLOP) would be probably the ideal sweet spot, once you go above that you're going to have massive problems running the same game on both configurations. 
You can't just have a 400-500 gigaflop portable (in actual usage) and then like a 3 TFLOP SCD configuration, the gap beween the two is ridiculous.