I find it surprising that so many people know how the hardware is despite Nintendo not giving away dev kits, they must have some great crystal balls!

I don't believe half of this new batch of rumors.

Nintendo can't really press AMD much, because they are their only option. IBM doesn't make GPUs and Nvidia is not only more expensive than AMD, but they have left a bad reputation in their past console contributions.

The SCD could be a variation of AMD's XConnect, which allows laptops to use desktop graphic cards through an enclosure. The key point for that to work is to have a connexion with enough bandwidth to allow both devices to "talk" to each other without problems (like latency), and that kind of connexion is Thunderbolt 3/USB-Type C.

So if NX has a USB-Type C connector, then it may have a SCD, but if it doesn't, I won't count on it.

I hope it's almost 2 times more powerful than PS4, otherwise no purchase.

I dunno I would press AMD pretty hard, and the poster 10k on NeoGaf actually kinda speculated the same thing ... 

Nintendo may have put the heat to AMD to let them use the 14nm Polaris and AMD make even cover a certain overage on yields (since 14nm is a new process). 

BUT the trade off with that is Nintendo have given AMD the contract for the NX portable too and they may have offered it to AMD as an all or nothing deal, as in you cut us a break on the tech, and we'll give you two contracts here. 

Because if Nintendo wanted to go this whole unified platform route, I have zero doubt whatsoever that mobile vendors like PowerVR (supplier of Apple's iPhone/iPad processors and the PSVita GPU) and Qualcomm (makers of the Snapdragon chips for Android phones/tablets) would have been all over Nintendo particularily for the portable side. 

And since Nintendo would need a unified chip architecture to have cross compatibility of games, going with say PowerVR or Qualcomm would mean bye bye AMD. 

Even with a sluggish generation this cycle, the 3DS + Wii U will still sell about 85 million units ... which is still enough to get a lot of interest. So no I don't think AMD was their only choice. 

I suspect Nintendo learned some very bitter lessons on component costs with the Wii U and 3DS burning them badly at times, this time I suspect they were much more aggresive on component pricing. 

Of couse they pressed AMD to try to get a better deal, but they can't really press too much because both Nintendo and AMD know that Nintendo has no other viable option except them. ARM is not good enough for a home console. 

Also, I would put that 14nm Polaris rumor on hold because it's too surprising and contradicts his other info:

+The NX will use a custom Polaris-like GPU. Likely will be on a FinFET 14nm fabrication node. The source told me it's on the same architecture with heavy customizations of course . It will contain the feature set of Polaris. It is "marginally better than the PS4" and theoretically could be "2x the power of PS4 GPU". I asked about PS4K being rumored to have a gpu 2x as powerful as the OG PS4 and how the theoretical performance of the NX would be and was told "Theoretically it could be close to the PS4K rumored specs". Of course, we know nothing of Polaris or the PS4K specs, but he gave that metric.

+Most dev kits won't be given until Nintendo formally reveals the NX. As my previous post indicated, Nintendo is none too happy with the leaks and is keeping things on lockdown. Outside of close partners and internal teams, most devs are using SDK's until the NX reveal. Not a big deal, but I was told specs are pretty much final as of now, and the May update will likely be for the final spec sheet and not target specs.

Leaving the discrepancy between the GPU being "marginally better" to be "2x the power of PS4 GPU" (and in the same sentence!) aside, how does so many people know that NX will use not only a Polaris chip, but also a 14nm chip if so little people have actual dev kits? Software Development Kits don't show that kind of info.

I think it's Polaris for the other reasoning that I just can't see Nintendo releasing a 100 watt+ console, and that's what you'd be looking at with a 28nm AMD GPU above a PS4. They're too obsessed with low power consumption, the moment they saw Arctic Islands/Polaris they probably fell head over heels. 

I actually think PowerVR would have been a good vendor for Nintendo. They are actively looking for a console maker too and the performance per watt they're getting out of their Apple GPUs is pretty astounding. The GT7900 is 800 GFLOPS and can scale even beyond that based on vendor needs, they're hoping to get that chip into micro-consoles. 

AMD probably bent over backwards and said OK when presented with the golden apple of being able to supply for the Nintendo portable. 

AMD has been basically locked out of mobile, if they can supply the portable NX with chips, that at least gets their foot in that door and would be a nice feature in their cap above Nvidia that's still struggling to get vendors for their Tegra X1. 

A +100W console would be hard to imagine with the "old" Nintendo of small consoles, but we don't know if part of their alleged change has to do with this approach.

I don't know for how long has PowerVR had that chip you mention, but we knew that AMD had won a console design since the end of 2014, and given what was happening with PS4 and X1, it was quite clear that it was going to be a Nintendo console/handheld.

The same head designer of the Wii U is still heading up the NX, so I doubt a giant 100 watt console would be permitted. 

It could simply also mean that NX is only maybe launching in the West this year, or will have a more slower roll out initially until yields get better, but the sooner you get that ball rolling the sooner your userbase grows. 

I suspect what's happened is that the portable NX is the real key to everything here, but in order to have a portable powerful enough to be viable cross-platform device to a modern home console ... Nintendo will have to wait until 2017 to release that at the price they want, with the yields they want. 

If Nintendo just wanted to slap together a standard next-gen portable, something easily 3-4x the Vita (ala the Apple 8X or A9 chip), that would be easy enough to release this year. I think they are swinging for the fences this time out and going balls to the wall with this cross platform ideal, and that only works as much as the portable will allow. 

But that's why likely the console seems to be on the front burner ... it's easier to make a console, even a powerful one, that just has to plug into a wall and has active cooling. 

Likely neither AMD or Nintendo were really keen on going elsewhere. AMD still will remember the Wii and they are smart enough to see how well Nintendo portables sell, giving a little on the console initially to gain the portable contract is a fair trade off. 

The designer works under the needs and instructions set to him. If Nintendo asks for a small and low power console for a certain budget, that's what he will design. If he's given a bigger more headroom for a bigger and more powerful console, that's what he will design.

A staggered launch could be possible although it's not the best strategy, specially if there's a several months delay between regions.

In any case, E3 is just two months away! We'll get more and reliable info soon.

Well I think it's more of a business decision, these decisions are made by the suits, not designers. AMD likely crunched the numbers even in the scenario where they eat a bit more early on than they would normally versus the pro of having portable + console Nintendo business and what they project that to net them over the course of the next 5-6 years. 

Um, yes it is mind blowing. You're not understanding what this thing is if you're not. A product like this, from what the patent is describing, would easily become the largest cloud network on the planet, except all that computational power, I'm talking the equivlent of thousands of super computers, could be dedicated NX platforms. That's massive.

What the patent is describing is a network of these things, which means that the more people who buy them, the more powerful the network becomes, and Nintendo would be in charge of it. You are thinking WAY smaller than the patent is. That's why I'm asking if it can provide internet.