This image is of the inside of the GPU. Just so you see what we're talking about, here's a picture of the Wii U's board that holds the GPU and CPU:

The large square is the GPU, the smaller rectangle is the CPU, and then there's a third chip, the little thing just below the GPU, which is subject of speculation.

The image that I posted is a viewing of the inside of the GPU - don't ask me which orientation it is, I wouldn't have a clue.

ARM is a type of CPU, in this case, the Wii Graphics chip had one embedded in it for Security purposes. The Wii U doesn't need a dedicated Wii chip in it since it's CPU is in the same family (read Optimized code for the Wii CPU will run on the Wii U's CPU, much like code for a Pentuim 4 will run on a i7 since they are in the same family). The DSP is a dedicated sound processor Nintendo seems to like to include a DSP for sound processing in its machines instead of using the CPU to process sound.

Both are guesses based on what Nintendo has done in the past with the Wii in the case of the ARM. I thought the DSP was a seprate waffer (possibly the unknown chip on the MCM), but it is possible to be integrated with the GPU.

Man that looks like some insane amount of tech when you consider it's on a 12mm squared piece of silicon, people going to be speculating exactly what every part of this does for some time, considering Nintendos love of not telling exact specs ever, they wont end this argument.

Edit - Meant to say, the crowd at Chipworks site are indeed awesome for releasing this image mainly for the reason they did it, gamin bros!

Finally read this thread from front to back, all I can say is this is a speculation spree... that is until we get to have the games in our hands. ;)

I have been happily playing FE today, just checked in before work. Plus I haven't been able to get on it because of my brother's COD:BlOPs marathons, for someone who told me he hated the game that it would just be a waste of money getting it, he seems to be playing it a lot. Sorry I went off topic.

But yeah custom chips are NIntendo's mantra expecially since the Gamecube. And it's not a bad path for a system that is optimize to play games as long as NIntendo offers a robust API that handels most processes (there are some things that are better off using these) there really should be no problem porting. Since most games today are built on top of engines, most developers don't really need to get into the nitty gritty of totally optimization as long as you are using an engine like Unity or UE which have a general optimization you sould be able to get a game running with out problems, how well it runs, you can just look at the first batch of semi-rushed ports just to see.

Crytek said that it runs Crytek 3 at 100% capacity and pure beautifully at that.

But you should know that Unreal 4 does 2 things better then Crytek 3, but C3 does everything else more better then U4.

I'm glad Unreal 4 doesn't require as much power as Crytek 3 does. Can't wait to see what Unreal 4 games get ported to the Wii U.

Proof that the Wii-U is no better performance wise than current gen consoles is finally arriving.

Eat my shorts non believers.

So do you eat your own if your wrong?

It has a minimum of 480 shader cores VS. 48 on the 360.

It uses 2010 technology VS. 2004 technology on the 360.

It has a 2 GB RAM vs. 256 RAM in 360.

It has somewhere from 500 to a little over 1,000 GFLOPs.

It has 5.3 GHz Wireless VS. 2.4 GHz Wireless on the 360.

So may I ask you what the funky wackos are you talking about?

GFLOPS numbers are all over the place (300-600 seem to be a more recent guesses).  But anyhow they aren't always the best way to determine actual performance.  Like the GC's having a 1/3rd the GFLOPS of the Xbox but being able to hold its own with it in real performance.  And with what has been known for some while is the Wii U looks be much like the GC, being highly efficient.