Siberian

Hey Epobirs

The IBM 970FX was developped especially to bring a G5 technology to Apple Laptop but Apple decided that they had better futur with Intel. The 970FX and the 970MP chip is used into low end desktop for 3D graphic and design work and the sales are mminimalist so IBM would certainly like to get a return to their investment. anyway, IBM has a road map for CPU and any chip development need to be within bounderies of that road map because specifid development will be expensive and Nintendo can't affort sponsoring this type of research project. Sony did with the Cell... and financial analyst are still worry with the outcome because it was extremely expensive for Sony and the results seem to be ordinary despite the design is innovative. The triple core CPU in the XBOX 360 is a direct derivative of 970MP.

The IBM 750 was the IBM version of the G3 processor. The Gekko, was directly derive from the IBM 750. The only 750 in production at IBM now are to sustain the service engineer field for embeded system. The volume is low and it is very unlikely that the Wii will sport and IBM 750 derivative since the cost to produce them will be even higher then producing a 970FX chip. It is a question of volume and technology cost.

as of the GPU concern, why make flipper 2... what will be the purpuse since the chippest ATI GPU has stellar performance compared to flipper. The GPU thechnology has evolved so much in the last five year that again making flipper 2 bas on similar hardware design will be an economical non sens for ATI and a marketing flop. There is special feature on the flipper GPU and these features will be most likely upgraded and integrated into the new GPU but it will be mostlikely inspired in design to the ATI Radeon X1600 GPU. It is good GPU and will be economicalyy viable for both companies.

For sure hardware is not everythin and good programming, design and concept would make surely a good step forward. But programming as its limit... I don't think and Atari 2600 would have been able to run a Zelda games... despite you had the best of the best programmers... We will see soon, but I am confident that Nintendo will present a decent machine to satisfy gamers from all target groups. Let's cross our fingers

These specs are not realistics. Comments from ATI representative tends to make us believe that the Wii GPU will be much more powerfull then we think. Do you really believe that serious tech company such as ATI and IBM will produce low tech device just for Nintendo? I don't think so. And Nitendo knows this business better then anyone else so these specs are rubbish.

Again, the CPU will be based on the 970FX (single core) and should be running at 2GHz. The GPU will be different in architecture from the XBOX 360 but will used its main component with special Nintendo specifications.

Dear Elmer

You seem to forget that the iMAC G5 has a display integrated and a hard drive, so the heat problem is not only related to the CPU itself. However, you are right that the G5 is not exactly a power saver chip! Remember that about a few weeks after the annoncement of APPLE to migrate to Intel, IBM has release a new G5 CPU (970FX) wich is a low power processor. This chip never really made it into an APPLE product but was design to be used into a protable computer. The chip was initially clocked at 1.2, 1.4 and 1.6 GHz but apparently now they have it running at 1.8 GHz and the objective is to get it at 2GHz. The main focuss of this product now is the WII console.

You mention that PS2 could display in HD... wow have you ever compared the image quality of RE 4... you will notice a significant difference between the gamecube version and the PS2 version. Even if you upscale the image in HD it will not be much better... it will look smoother but not necessarly crisp. I don't believe a N64 nor a PS2 could run real time HD image with decent performance. Think about it, even a good PC 5 years ago suffer when display PRE_RENDER HD image. Fast pace games were played at 800x600 in most case (e.g. Quake 3 arena) because at high res, the computer performance were insufficient to enjoy the game. imagine now a PS2, Xbox or a gamecube that was significantly less powerfull than a mid-high end PC at the time. Lets be realistic here.

I agree with you with the HD things... Do you really believe that people will buy 2000 $ and up TV just to play video games... this is follish. I have frieds that purchase a XBOX 360 and they use a regular TV... the imagee does look a bit better than the original XBOX not very much. However, the solution to get good image quality is to go and buy a old 20 inch CRT computer monitor that can go up to 1600 x 1200 resolution. You can buy used monitors for less then 50$ and get real HD performance for a very reasonable price. I have seen the results with the XBOX 360 and in my opinion, it is even better then a HD TV. If we could do that with a WII, I will be happy.

I have played the complete series of Rogue Squadron and I had a lot of fun but I would like to play others like Battlefront, ect. I was a big fan of the X-wing series so I am still dreaming of getting to fly a X-wing or a jedy star fighter again... lets dream!

Dear Elmer

How can you explain that a G5 was pack in thiny computer like the Apple iMAC up to very recently... You have the choice to believe it or not. I just relay some information.

For you information, yes even a old graphic card with 4 mb of memory can display image in 720P. However, the card horse power is far from being strong enough to render real time scene from 3D games... The N64 and probably the gamecube in not capable doing that.

By the way, HD is not everything... look at nemo on a DVD, the cartoon looks amazing and it is render at maximum 480P... so there is more then display HD image to produce the right effect.

Kris

I understand you comments and you have the right to questions my informations. I am from montreal and work in the science field. Sometime, I need some custom software to be written and I contract the work to a person that work for a large game company based in Montreal. He knows that I am an avid gamer so we sometime discuss about our respective work. He is very enthousisas about what is going on with the WII console and he share some input with me. I can't verified if the informations are accurate, but I know for who he is working and is position in the company so, I have all the reason to believe that this information are true.

Recently, I have been in a conversation with a developper in the Montreal area and he has disclosed some interesting information regarding the WII console.

The console will sport a modified single core 2GHz G5 processor (the core modification are similar in principle to core modification done on the G3 for the Gekko). The ATI graphic card will be very similar to the XBOX 360 except for some special feature required by nintendo (did not specified but comments on the depth of graphics?!) He also mention that the system should indeed be able to output resolution of 720P... However, he mention that nintendo will not imposed any graphic requirements for software developpers other then some regular QA stuff. This mean that some game ports will be able to be played in 720P as well as exclusive games if developed to display this resolution. The WII will also be able to be connected to a computer monitor using a special connector. He mention that developper Kits does not have this graphic card yet included, they only have a modified version of the gamecube graphic card. This is why the games showed at E3 did not looked much better then a gamecube version but mention to me that he have seen games on alpha version of the new graphic card and it will be surprising even if display in 480P. He mention to me that the texture were very good and add some new realism effect in the graphics ??!

Apparently the target price will be 249$ US including WII Sport and some dowload credit for classic software download.

All this sounds very exciting and I certainly will want to look closely at one. I have been a nintendo fan but the gamecube was in my opinion a failure since I was unable to play some of my favorite games (i.e. lucasarts star wars games, good Racing simulators, flight simulators). I hope this time, WII will be really inclusive and the core gamers will be serve as well as casual gamers and kids. We will see...

Recently, I have been in a conversation with a developper in the Montreal area and he has disclose some interesting information regarding the WII console.

The console will sport a modified single core 2GHz G5 processor (the core modification are similar in principle to core modification done on the G3 for the Gekko). The ATI graphic card will be very similar to the XBOX 360 except for some special feature required by nintendo (did not specified but comments on the depth of graphics?!) He also mention that the system should indeed be able to output resolution of 720P... However, he mention that nintendo will not imposed any graphic requirements for software developpers other then some regular QA stuff. This mean that some game ports will be able to be played in 720P as well as exclusive if developed to display this resolution. The WII will also be able to be connected to a computer monitor using a special connector. He mention that developper Kits does not have this graphic card yet include, just a modified version of the gamecube, this is why the game show at E3 did not looked much better then a gamecube game but mention to me that he have seen games on alpha version of the new graphic card and it will be surprising even if display in 480P. He mention to me that the texture were very good and add some realism in the graphics ??!

Apparently the target price will be 249$ US including WII Sport and some dowload credit for classic software download.

All this sounds very exciting and I certainly will want to look closely at one. I have been a nintendo fan but the gamecube was in my opinion a failure since I was unable to play some of my favorite games (i.e. lucasarts star wars games, good Racing simulators, flight simulators). I hope this time, WII will be really inclusive and the core gamers will be serve as well as casual gamers and kid. We will see...