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Forums - Gaming - Supposedly, Final WiiU Specs from VGLeaks

zarx said:
lilbroex said:


False, Broadway is a 64bit processor.

  • 90 nanometer process technology
  • Power Architecture core, specially modified for the Wii platform
  • IBM silicon on insulator (SOI) technology
  • Backward compatible with the Gekko processor
  • 729 MHz
  • 32-bit integer unit
  • 64-bit floating-point (or 2 × 32-bit SIMD, often found under the denomination "paired singles")
  • 64 kB L1 cache (32 kB instruction + 32 kB data)
  • 256 kB L2 cache
  • 2.9 GFLOPS

External bus

  • 64-bit
  • 243 MHz
  • 1.944 gigabytes per second bandwidth

Only the integer unit is listed at 32 bit.


IBM says it's 32-Bit

http://raidenii.net/files/datasheets/cpu/ppc_broadway.pdf

I suppose you think that the Pentium 3 is a 128-Bit CPU because it has a SIMD 128-bit Floating point register lol

http://www.ehow.com/list_7446473_pentium-3-specifications.html

 

The instruction set of the Broadway is 32-Bit it's a 32-Bit CPU


Why would I think something that I've stated otherwise many times?


Broadway has a 32-bit address bus and a 64-bit data bus.

You sure we read the same manual?

Three-stage FPU.
– Supports paired single precision floating point arithmetic instruction set extension.
– Fully IEEE 754-1985-compliant FPU for both single- and double-precision operations.
– Supports non-IEEE mode for time-critical operations.
– Hardware support for denormalized numbers.
– Two-entry reservation station.
Thirty-two 64-bit FPRs for single, paired single, or double-precision operands.
— Two-stage LSU.

A 64-bit, split-transaction external data bus with burst transfers.

The store instructions read the 64-bit data from the FPR as a pair of single-precision floating
point data, convert the single-precision floating point numbers into a pair of 8 or 16-bit, signed or
unsigned integer data, and store the results.

The data bus width for bus interface unit (BIU) accesses of the L1 data cache array is 64 bits on the
Broadway and cast out or reload of a 32-byte cache line requires four access cycles. On the Broadway,
this bus has been expanded to 256 bits

The
access interface to the L2 is 64 bits

FPRs User The 32 floating-point registers (FPRs) serve as the data source or destination for floatingpoint
instructions. These 64-bit registers can hold single, paired single or double-precision
floating-point values.

TB User: read
Supervisor:
read/write
The time base register (TB) is a 64-bit register that maintains the time and date variable.
The TB consists of two 32-bit fields—time base upper (TBU) and time base lower (TBL).

 

The memory management module is 32 bit but most components and primarily the data bus(the most important thing) is 64 bit. A 32 bit processor cannot handle 64 bit processes of any form.

 

TLB
Invalidate
Entry
tlbie rB Invalidates both ways in both instruction and data TLB entries at the index
provided by EA[14–19]. It executes regardless of the MSR[DR] and MSR[IR]
settings.To invalidate all entries in both TLBs, the programmer should issue 64
tlbie instructions
that each successively increment this field.

You can't issue 64 bity instructions on a 32 bit processor.



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PureDante said:

seems powerful enough to run more mario rehashes!

moderated by kasz216


Meanwhile you are hyped for GTA5. Hypocrite.



TheShape31 said:
oni-link said:
 

Straight from IBM's official twitter account: http://twitter.com/IBMWatson/status/240241146213842944

here's another: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/ibm-puts-watsons-brains-in-nintendo-wii-u/

and another: http://wiiudaily.com/2012/05/wii-u-cpu-said-to-support-8-threads-is-20x-faster-than-wii/

and another: http://gamingunwrapped.com/rumor-wii-us-cpu-based-on-the-ibm-710-express-chip/

Out of the 4 links, only the first two were any sort of 'official' confirmations.  The 4th article is simply restating your 3rd one (it links back to it, they are the same story)...  And it is based all on rumor.  Please no more rumors.  None of this is new information that hasn't been discussed on this page, anyway.

Yes...please no more rumors about the Wii being weaker or equal to the HD twins (which u seem to obviously delight upon) despite the facts that points otherwise!!!  Anyways, the last two is still be more credible than an anonymous poster from neogaf or any gaming thread for that matter.  The fact that there is official confirmation to the P7 makes anyone who refutes the fact otherwise look very foolish!!!



lilbroex said:
zarx said:


IBM says it's 32-Bit

http://raidenii.net/files/datasheets/cpu/ppc_broadway.pdf

I suppose you think that the Pentium 3 is a 128-Bit CPU because it has a SIMD 128-bit Floating point register lol

http://www.ehow.com/list_7446473_pentium-3-specifications.html

 

The instruction set of the Broadway is 32-Bit it's a 32-Bit CPU


Why would I think something that I've stated otherwise many times?


Broadway has a 32-bit address bus and a 64-bit data bus.

You can't issue 64 bity instructions on a 32 bit processor.


CPU bits reffers to address space, not the floating point size/data size. Broadway is a 32-Bit CPU with a 64-Bit FPU, not a true 64-Bit CPU.

From the PDF I linked

Broadway implements the 32-bit portion of the PowerPC Architecture,
which provides 32-bit effective addresses, integer data types of 8, 16, and 32 bits, and floating-point
data types of single and double-precision.

 

From Wikipedia:

In computer architecture, 64-bit computing is the use of processors that have datapath widths, integer size, and memory addresses of 64 bits (8 octets) wide.

Without further qualification, a 64-bit computer architecture generally has integer and addressing registers that are 64 bits wide, allowing direct support for 64-bit data types and addresses. However, a CPU might have external data buses or address buses with different sizes from the registers, even larger (the 32-bit Pentium had a 64-bit data bus, for instance)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit_computing

 

Claiming that Broadway is a 64Bit CPU is disingenuous as it does not have an 64-bit instruction set, does not have a 64-bit address space and does not have a 64-bit intiger unit. Lots of 32-Bit CPUs have 64-Bit data bus and or a 64-Bit FPU.



@TheVoxelman on twitter

Check out my hype threads: Cyberpunk, and The Witcher 3!

oni-link said:
TheShape31 said:
oni-link said:
 

Straight from IBM's official twitter account: http://twitter.com/IBMWatson/status/240241146213842944

here's another: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/ibm-puts-watsons-brains-in-nintendo-wii-u/

and another: http://wiiudaily.com/2012/05/wii-u-cpu-said-to-support-8-threads-is-20x-faster-than-wii/

and another: http://gamingunwrapped.com/rumor-wii-us-cpu-based-on-the-ibm-710-express-chip/

Out of the 4 links, only the first two were any sort of 'official' confirmations.  The 4th article is simply restating your 3rd one (it links back to it, they are the same story)...  And it is based all on rumor.  Please no more rumors.  None of this is new information that hasn't been discussed on this page, anyway.

Yes...please no more rumors about the Wii being weaker or equal to the HD twins (which u seem to obviously delight upon) despite the facts that points otherwise!!!  Anyways, the last two is still be more credible than an anonymous poster from neogaf or any gaming thread for that matter.  The fact that there is official confirmation to the P7 makes anyone who refutes the fact otherwise look very foolish!!!

No one is saying that it's weaker or the same as the HD twins.  And who's delighting upon anything?  Did you read my last post where I said I hoped the Wii U was more powerful than the rumored specs in this thread?  Apparently not.  Anyway, you talk about 'facts' and 'these rumors' being more credible than 'those rumors'... they're all rumors, and I have no idea why you want to carry on when there's no discussion left.  It's a dead argument.  Oh yes, you wanted to make sure and call me foolish and use a bunch of exclamation points to make yourself feel better.  I hope you feel better, then move onto doing something more constructive with your time.



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zarx said:
lilbroex said:
zarx said:


IBM says it's 32-Bit

http://raidenii.net/files/datasheets/cpu/ppc_broadway.pdf

I suppose you think that the Pentium 3 is a 128-Bit CPU because it has a SIMD 128-bit Floating point register lol

http://www.ehow.com/list_7446473_pentium-3-specifications.html

 

The instruction set of the Broadway is 32-Bit it's a 32-Bit CPU


Why would I think something that I've stated otherwise many times?


Broadway has a 32-bit address bus and a 64-bit data bus.

You can't issue 64 bity instructions on a 32 bit processor.


CPU bits reffers to address space, not the floating point size/data size. Broadway is a 32-Bit CPU with a 64-Bit FPU, not a true 64-Bit CPU.

From the PDF I linked

Broadway implements the 32-bit portion of the PowerPC Architecture,
which provides 32-bit effective addresses, integer data types of 8, 16, and 32 bits, and floating-point
data types of single and double-precision.

 

From Wikipedia:

In computer architecture, 64-bit computing is the use of processors that have datapath widths, integer size, and memory addresses of 64 bits (8 octets) wide.

Without further qualification, a 64-bit computer architecture generally has integer and addressing registers that are 64 bits wide, allowing direct support for 64-bit data types and addresses. However, a CPU might have external data buses or address buses with different sizes from the registers, even larger (the 32-bit Pentium had a 64-bit data bus, for instance)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/64-bit_computing

 

Claiming that Broadway is a 64Bit CPU is disingenuous as it does not have an 64-bit instruction set, does not have a 64-bit address space and does not have a 64-bit intiger unit. Lots of 32-Bit CPUs have 64-Bit data bus and or a 64-Bit FPU.



I'll back you up.

The 32-bit ALU pretty much confirms a 32-bit CPU.  Much in the same way a Motorola 68000 is a 16-bit CPU despite sometimes being called 16/32 bit.  It did have 32-bit memory addressing (although only used 24-bit addressing for cost reasons) and was designed to be forwardly compatible with future 32-bit 68K CPUs.  But its ALU was 16-bit, hence the 16-bit label.

1984's 68020 was a true 32-bit CPU, but adding a 68881 FPU did not make it 64-bit despite support for double-precision floats.

Similar issues can be found with the SNES CPU.  It had a 16-bit ALU, but an 8-bit data bus.  However, nobody ever called it an 8-bit CPU.

Fun...



TheShape31 said:
oni-link said:
TheShape31 said:
oni-link said:
 

Straight from IBM's official twitter account: http://twitter.com/IBMWatson/status/240241146213842944

here's another: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/ibm-puts-watsons-brains-in-nintendo-wii-u/

and another: http://wiiudaily.com/2012/05/wii-u-cpu-said-to-support-8-threads-is-20x-faster-than-wii/

and another: http://gamingunwrapped.com/rumor-wii-us-cpu-based-on-the-ibm-710-express-chip/

Out of the 4 links, only the first two were any sort of 'official' confirmations.  The 4th article is simply restating your 3rd one (it links back to it, they are the same story)...  And it is based all on rumor.  Please no more rumors.  None of this is new information that hasn't been discussed on this page, anyway.

Yes...please no more rumors about the Wii being weaker or equal to the HD twins (which u seem to obviously delight upon) despite the facts that points otherwise!!!  Anyways, the last two is still be more credible than an anonymous poster from neogaf or any gaming thread for that matter.  The fact that there is official confirmation to the P7 makes anyone who refutes the fact otherwise look very foolish!!!

No one is saying that it's weaker or the same as the HD twins.  And who's delighting upon anything?  Did you read my last post where I said I hoped the Wii U was more powerful than the rumored specs in this thread?  Apparently not.  Anyway, you talk about 'facts' and 'these rumors' being more credible than 'those rumors'... they're all rumors, and I have no idea why you want to carry on when there's no discussion left.  It's a dead argument.  Oh yes, you wanted to make sure and call me foolish and use a bunch of exclamation points to make yourself feel better.  I hope you feel better, then move onto doing something more constructive with your time.

 

Unless you refute that the Wii U isn't using a version of Watson (P7), then the foolish term is not meant for you!!!  If you do then there is an argument, since there IS official confirmation that the Wii U is using the Watson/P7 architecture.  I do feel better,  and I will take your advice and be done with you and this discussion.  A person can only bring the cow to the pond so many times to drink; but the cow has to drink for itself.



HappySqurriel said:
Squilliam said:

The Wii U is likely more powerful than the current generation consoles with slightly better technology but it won't be a huge difference. It is likely to be between 1.3-2.5* more powerful than the Xbox 360 which is bourne out by the games seen thus far and the more credible rumours. I do expect the cost of the system to be between $199-249 and with the Yen vs dollar/euro conversion as it is that doesn't pay for expensive systems.


I personally think you're aiming low ...

With the Wii U CPU being based on a Power7 processor (of some sort) and the GPU being based on a R7xx (of some sort) I suspect that after a quick and dirty port of the XBox 360 code base most games (probably) run about 50% to 100% faster than they did on the XBox 360. Developers who take the time to understand the Wii U architecture and take advantage of its advanced features will probably get 50% to 100% greater performance; and several of these features (like Tessellation) will improve the preceived performance.

We still don't know enough about the architecture to really make any real guesses. The Xbox 360 and PS3 shared a lot of similarities in lineage but their overall CPU architecture was laid out completely differently. The truth has probably been leaked in many different places, however people naturally want to believe that the system is going to be powerful and hence there is a bias towards dismissing information which doesn't point to good performance.



Tease.

I'm still of the opinion that "three Broadways" outs this as fake.

Why in the world would they beef up a CPU based on 1990s technology when it would be much simpler to just to use a modern one, even if it's not the most powerful one money can buy? (Easy backwards compatibility I suppose, but really, doesn't seem worth it) It's like tying three horses together and feeding them steroids instead of just buying a damn car.



curl-6 said:
I'm still of the opinion that "three Broadways" outs this as fake.

Why in the world would they beef up a CPU based on 1990s technology when it would be much simpler to just to use a modern one, even if it's not the most powerful one money can buy? (Easy backwards compatibility I suppose, but really, doesn't seem worth it) It's like tying three horses together and feeding them steroids instead of just buying a damn car.


Well to be fair it says 3 "enhanced Broadway" cores, enhanced could mean anything including TBH including adding some Power 7 tech to it. Not to say it is real, but IBM did say that it was a custom CPU with tech from Whatson/Power 7. It could be that Nintendo got IBM to create a custom CPU derived from Power 7 but with Broadway feature parity for hardware backwards compatability. If the enhanced Broadway stuff is tru I don't think it would literally mean 3 Broadway cores. 

I guy on GAF who had aparently been mod verified as having access to a Wii U dev kitt said that the term "enhanced Broadway" was used in technical documents from Nintendo. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41438117&postcount=195

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41437121&postcount=186

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=36333855&postcount=8989



@TheVoxelman on twitter

Check out my hype threads: Cyberpunk, and The Witcher 3!