Yes I did.  Thanks, I knew something was off in that post...

Just a few thoughts, IBM's current roadmap has the 32nm process being ready by the end of 2009 and is planning to have a 28nm process out "6 months after the 32nm process" ... In the next 2.5 years I would expect them to have the 22nm process out. Beyond that the statement "consoles tend to be behind the process curve." is not true; just looking back on the previous generation, both the Gamecube and XBox used the 180nm process pretty early in its life. A more accurate statement would be that "Consoles tend to be produced with the process the console manufacturing company's technolgy partners are ready for" which may or may not be the newest process, typically depending on their long term strategy.

Anyways, people assumptions about what Nintendo's next generation hardware will be is heavily dependant on their assumptions of why Nintendo produced the hardware they did in the current generation. Personally, I think a combination of uncertainty about the success of the Wii, the exploding development costs (and developers inability to controll themself), and the expense of hardware that could produce graphics with advanced texture effects at high resolutions were some of the main factors ... In the next generation they will have less to worry about in terms of the success of their system, developers will have learned to produce games at a reasonable price (for expected sales) or have gone out of business, and hardware capable of advanced texture effects at high resolution should be fairly inexpensive (for example, even low end graphics cards will be able to run a game like Crysis at high detail at above 1080p and over 60fps).

Nintendo will improve the graphics on the SuperWii, I don't know if they'll be better than the 360, like Squilliam said. Nintendo will try to do a low consumption and not so expensive console. If the technology's cost allow it, they will, we still don't know how many years left are for the next Nintendo console.

But even if they use HD or not, the graphics are not their main priority. The big success of the Wii over the other consoles is in part because graphics became a comodity. Nintendo is already trying new things. Microsoft and Sony are the ones to follow Nintendo's strategy, not the other way.

They'll likely target the process node which has a good combination of power efficiency, yields, and price. It isn't always cheaper to target the smallest process nodes especially when considering power efficiency, and yields are likely two of the most important considerations.

In all I would say the main limiting factor for Nintendo to produce a fast console is not price of materials rather its heat. If you consider the massive increase in power requirements from the last generation to the current one, or the fact that even a midrange GPU will use more power than an Extreme-edition quad core CPU.

This is going to sound totally random... but imagine if Nintendo actually named their next console Wii HD.

For those who don't get it:

Wii HD
WiiHD
WiiD
Weed.

What more marketing than this?

To stay on topic, however, I think Nintendo's next console will be more powerful than what we have now, ofcourse. It could match the power of the 360 in rems of graphcis, or stay a bit behind, which would be great either way. The size will be smaller than the current Wii, it won't play DVD's or CD's, making it smaller in size and less energy consuming (I think?).  It will have motion sensing, ofcourse, but not in the way we are imagining it right now. For some reason I doubt Nintendo will bring something forward that is like what the Wii already delivers, so I'm guessing a new type of motion sensing, but I have no idea how it will be. Just a thought.

 Maybe something like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

or this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0awjPUkBXOU&feature=channel

Hmm... They already used Lee's first vid "usage" in Spielberg's game as an Easter Egg. The idea would really be GREAT, and is, but it would only work for one person, like he states in the video. The second idea can me more useful, if the interaction with the game was improved like that it would really be something.

Nintendo always surprises us, let's see how they do so next time around.

All of you,thanks.You've given me a lot of technical info I didn't know.I'm a nintendo fan but ookaze,aren't u taking it 2 far.U make it sound as if wii performs better technically than the 360.On the flip side,gears of war 2 takes about 30 minutes to load b4 u can play a match online and another 30mins if u wanna play another match.Arsenicazure,I can feel ur pain but Ithink its too early to complain.I won't have high hopes for next year but lets see what the 3rd parties do with the wii in 2010 till the end of this cycle.I think they'll push it to its limits,even in hardcore games.Like the ps2.

This thread is like gold to Ninty fans haha.
One says Nintendo are afraid to release a console more powerful than X360 because of hot chips.
Another one they won't release a new console fearing losing the market.

If both statements were true so GameCube would have outsold PS2.

@arsenicazure: I guess your comparision works with PS3 too, since it ships with composite aswell. Don't know how it's with 360.

One of the reasons for 360:s high attach rate is the console being out longer. And as a side note, Wii has higher attach rate than PS3, if i recall.

@Tolu: Whether Ookaze overshoots a little or not, he does point out that the consoles have very different approach to customer.

@Happy Squrriel: The two had 180nM processors at launch.