NX Home Dock, anyone? Nintendo now officially has the patent for a SCD device(s). Thanks to Rosti at NeoGaf:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1263936

Small summary of the SCD patent:
 

• 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.

This is a fascinating patent.

The chipset for the NX likely is not costing Nintendo all that much.

It's possible the SCD could simply just be a second SoC (system on chip) with everything else stripped out and could be sold for like $130-$150 extra for those who want it.

Im getting excited for the NX 

I think we see multiple options for the SCD.  The Tablet will be the basic system.  But the SCD could offer options of more processing, a harddrive and more RAM.  Based on the patent above, I expect there will be an option for that + it will link to a home controler (s).   Just insert your tablet and play.

But there will probably be an option that only connects you to a TV.

I think keeping it simple would be the best way to go. 

Also the patent says the SCD shares the power supply unit of the base console, so it's probably not going to be wild with like 800 different things. 

Just an extra SoC alone (that consumes say 10-20 extra watts) would be fine. 

Maaaaybe a few years down the line they could replace the initial SCD unit with a 4K SCD as Tegra X3/X4 or whatever comes along. 

It's needs to be fairly simple for the consumer to understand. Buy the SCD dock and you get full 1080P XB1/PS4 type graphics on your home TV. There simple enough. Regular people don't understand things like FLOPS and you don't want them thinking about things like RAM count or whether or not game X/Y/Z runs well on Dock Version 1.48 when they have Dock 1.3. 

The NX plot thickens :).
Sigh, when will Nintendo annouce this device...?

Shows how much there's wrong with the patent system when Nintendo is able to patent something people on online forums have been talking about for years, and which has almost been done berore I think. Patents are supposed to protect innovations, and this isn't one. And sadly Nintendo the patent system also encourages Nintendo to patent this in case they're ever doing it, because otherwise someone else might.

Would be a very interesting feature to implement for NX, though I could see it being a bit complicated to market for the mainstream user. The core gaming fanbase would eat it up though, as long as Nintendo could secure software to make use of the extra power.

If they are going the Nvidia route it would be awesome if the SCD is an extra X2 chip in the dock that costs $149. That should be plenty of punch for down the road.