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Forums - Nintendo - Absorbing Wii U architecture?

JEMC on 04 February 2015

Leaving the backwards compativility theme aside, I think it can be something related with the move Nintendo did from the Wii to WiiU and adapt it to its home and handheld consoles.

I make this assumption from how the quote ends: "When this happens, home consoles and handheld devices will no longer be completely different, and they will become like brothers in a family of systems." and from my believe that Nintendo will launch a handheld and a home console, not a single device that works as both of them.

So, when they moved from the Wii to the Wii U what they did with the CPU was add 2 extra cores of the same kind (more or less) and use a new GPU that could run the old games with ease. If you mix that with the idea of a handheld and home consoles working as a family, what I think he meant to say was that they will use a single design or architecture across the portable and home consoles, but it will be a scalable design that will allow them to have a hardware solution with modest specs (but small power consumption) for its handheld and then use the same hardware but in more quantity to get a home console with bigger performance.

Think of it as going with an APU design of sorts with a  2 core CPU + 8 GCN "cores" for the GPU for its handheld while going with an APU with an 8 core CPU + 32 GCN "cores" for the GPU. Both systems will use the same kind of CPUs and GPUs thus allowing devs to learn only 1 architecture and using the same tools to develop for both devices, but because of the difference in performance between them (the home console has 4x the CPU and GPU), they are different enough as to not being the same thing and do the same.



Please excuse my bad English.

Former gaming PC: i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Current gaming PC: R5-7600, 32GB RAM 6000MT/s (CL30) and a RX 9060XT 16GB

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

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Miyamotoo on 04 February 2015
JEMC said:

Leaving the backwards compativility theme aside, I think it can be something related with the move Nintendo did from the Wii to WiiU and adapt it to its home and handheld consoles.

I make this assumption from how the quote ends: "When this happens, home consoles and handheld devices will no longer be completely different, and they will become like brothers in a family of systems." and from my believe that Nintendo will launch a handheld and a home console, not a single device that works as both of them.

So, when they moved from the Wii to the Wii U what they did with the CPU was add 2 extra cores of the same kind (more or less) and use a new GPU that could run the old games with ease. If you mix that with the idea of a handheld and home consoles working as a family, what I think he meant to say was that they will use a single design or architecture across the portable and home consoles, but it will be a scalable design that will allow them to have a hardware solution with modest specs (but small power consumption) for its handheld and then use the same hardware but in more quantity to get a home console with bigger performance.

Think of it as going with an APU design of sorts with a  2 core CPU + 8 GCN "cores" for the GPU for its handheld while going with an APU with an 8 core CPU + 32 GCN "cores" for the GPU. Both systems will use the same kind of CPUs and GPUs thus allowing devs to learn only 1 architecture and using the same tools to develop for both devices, but because of the difference in performance between them (the home console has 4x the CPU and GPU), they are different enough as to not being the same thing and do the same.

Make sense.



Raven on 04 February 2015

I imagine it means an architecture that could emulate Wii U software. If Nintendo goes with PowerPC again.. I have no hope for them anymore :/



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JEMC on 04 February 2015
Miyamotoo said:
JEMC said:
*snip*

Make sense.

You think so?



Please excuse my bad English.

Former gaming PC: i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Current gaming PC: R5-7600, 32GB RAM 6000MT/s (CL30) and a RX 9060XT 16GB

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

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zorg1000 on 04 February 2015
Hiku said:
zorg1000 said:

Ya but to my knowledge, backwards compatibility isn't what he's talking about. They will absorb the Wii U architecture into the their next handheld and console in order to increase software output by making it easier to share development and port games from one device to another.

Why would they need the Wii U architecture for that, if it only applies to their next home and handheld consoles? As long as their next home and handheld consoles share the same architecture, they can achieve that. No need for it to be the Wii U architecture specifically in that case.
Which is why it sounds like they are talking about backwards compatibility.

Also because one would assume that (backwards compatibility asside) they'd want to move on from the powerpc architecture, as it's not very cost efficient for them. Because it's less popular than for example x86, manufacturing costs don't drop particularly fast. 2 years down the line with struggling sales, and no price drop/deals yet is a sign of that.

As for the OP, it does sound a bit like it might be like the fat PS3 did with its backward compatibility. But makes me question how expensive Nintendo's next console will be and if its worth it.

They plan on integrating the Wii U architecture into the next devices basically so they don't have to start from scratch and will already have experience working with it. This way they can provide a strong software output from the start without having any post-launch droughts like 3DS/Wii U both suffered from.



When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.

Game_God on 04 February 2015
MohammadBadir said:
Hopefully it doesn't mean that they're going for PowerPC again .-.

I don't think that'a it at all!



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Teriol on 04 February 2015
Miyamotoo said:
JEMC said:

Leaving the backwards compativility theme aside, I think it can be something related with the move Nintendo did from the Wii to WiiU and adapt it to its home and handheld consoles.

I make this assumption from how the quote ends: "When this happens, home consoles and handheld devices will no longer be completely different, and they will become like brothers in a family of systems." and from my believe that Nintendo will launch a handheld and a home console, not a single device that works as both of them.

So, when they moved from the Wii to the Wii U what they did with the CPU was add 2 extra cores of the same kind (more or less) and use a new GPU that could run the old games with ease. If you mix that with the idea of a handheld and home consoles working as a family, what I think he meant to say was that they will use a single design or architecture across the portable and home consoles, but it will be a scalable design that will allow them to have a hardware solution with modest specs (but small power consumption) for its handheld and then use the same hardware but in more quantity to get a home console with bigger performance.

Think of it as going with an APU design of sorts with a  2 core CPU + 8 GCN "cores" for the GPU for its handheld while going with an APU with an 8 core CPU + 32 GCN "cores" for the GPU. Both systems will use the same kind of CPUs and GPUs thus allowing devs to learn only 1 architecture and using the same tools to develop for both devices, but because of the difference in performance between them (the home console has 4x the CPU and GPU), they are different enough as to not being the same thing and do the same.

Make sense.

yeah it make sense. +1



34 years playing games.

 

JazzB1987 on 04 February 2015

I understand it like this.


Today: WiiU PowerPC architecture. with ARM based co-processors etc.


Future: next system ?x86?-architecture with PowerPC co-processors. ***


That means WiiU's successor can handle GC/Wii/WiiU games because it actually does have a oced WiiU CPU that usually handles the OS and security etc. but in "WiiU" mode can play everything the WiiU/Wii/GC could.



**** or ARM based main processor with PowerPC co processors.   Keep in mind that ARM is likely used in the next handheld so  the main console also using arm will let the systems share the games like   iPhone and iPad do (Iwata wants something like that)



WolfpackN64 on 04 February 2015

Mayby a PowerPC co-processor or a full on PowerPC processor. If they opt for PowerPC again, they'll need a more powerfull chip and not make another 750 variant. They should use a PowerPC chip powerful enough to easly compile x86 code, mayby a variant of POWER8?