-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
AMD designing an x86 or ARM chip for a "game console" to be introduced 2016
- Thread starter ekim
- Start date
Americanmushroom
Banned
Boss★Moogle;144901306 said:
huh?
Hidden One
Member
That would suck for anyone who bought an Xbone.
PodcastFips
Member
PS4 Slim, eh?
Like Nintendo does not have other IPs?
I'll stick with this prediction as well.
They've been using ARM for a while in their handhelds...
shark sandwich
tenuously links anime, pedophile and incels
Not to mention there are ARM cores today that vastly outperform the pathetic Jaguar CPU in the X1 and PS4.
TC McQueen
Member
Well, x86 on both the console and handheld would make it easier to have a unified platform with great software support.
Except that x86 would cripple a handheld's ability to be a handheld. ARM is a mainstream architecture due to the extensive mobile penetration and market, and most everything has easy porting or full-on support for it.
Its not even really about architecture but about what the CPU/GPU are capable of running.
Dictator93
Member
Is this true any longer? Beyond supporting direct ports of
(garbage)
metalslimer
Member
The only thing I'm almost sure is 2016 is Nintendo's next handheld. Of course maybe they pull a 2001 and launch both. The Wii U will be dead by the end of 2016 anyway. I'm really excited for what they will do with the next handheld.
PrincessDan
Neo Member
Introducing the "New Nintendo Wii U".
Intel Atom is close but still not caught up. The Cortex-A9 is more efficient per performance and thats on ARMv7, and the new ARMv8a showings are ever promising in both efficiency and performance. (Intel is fighting an uphill, seemingly dead-end battle to penetrate the market (heavy subsidies to push their Atom powered tablets to try and gain dev support) with x86, and even AMD doesn't seem to actually be trying with that aspect and going into ARM development.)
There are other things to consider too like: does it give any advantage to swap from the design philosophies of ARM to x86? Their only manufacturer would be Intel who would charge an arm and a leg for whatever unit Nintendo may want developed as they have a total monopoly on that end.
shark sandwich
tenuously links anime, pedophile and incels
Nope. Those are all based on the (ancient) PowerPC 750 architecture. AKA the Macintosh G3 lol.
shark sandwich
tenuously links anime, pedophile and incels
I think it's obvious that it's Nintendo's next handheld.
I actually wonder if Nintendo might get upset with AMD given how much they've hinted at this deal for Nintendo's next handheld already. Like when Mark Papermaster of AMD said this in June:
Source: http://blogs.barrons.com/techtrader...i-talk-wearables-infrastructure-server-chips/
Iwata has also essentially confirmed that their next system is in 2016. And that job posting from a couple months ago made it sound like Nintendo was looking for a mostly off-the-shelf SoC solution for their next system: http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=916426
The circumstantial evidence for Nintendo's next handheld being based on an ARM-powered SoC from AMD and being released in 2016 is just very strong, in my opinion.
I actually wonder if Nintendo might get upset with AMD given how much they've hinted at this deal for Nintendo's next handheld already. Like when Mark Papermaster of AMD said this in June:
Source: http://blogs.barrons.com/techtrader...i-talk-wearables-infrastructure-server-chips/
Iwata has also essentially confirmed that their next system is in 2016. And that job posting from a couple months ago made it sound like Nintendo was looking for a mostly off-the-shelf SoC solution for their next system: http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=916426
The circumstantial evidence for Nintendo's next handheld being based on an ARM-powered SoC from AMD and being released in 2016 is just very strong, in my opinion.
You've had the original GameBoy, you had the GameBoy Colour and you even had a GameBoy Advance, now prepare for the GameBoy U!
They've pretty much been off-shelf for a while now, its not like Nintendo does extensive R&D. Its just a question on who the provider of the chip has been.
They'll obviously have streamlines and customizations with gaming in mind, rather than, say, building for a general mobile device.
Trevelyan9999
Banned
I think we're ready for Nintendo to get real about naming their systems again. GameCube was a cool name, Nintendo 64 was clear and direct, Super Nintendo was obvious too.
Handheld: Nintendo GameBoy Infinity
Console: Nintendo Ultra HD Entertainment System
Hero_of_the_Day
Member
What do you mean? After new Zelda, what other big guns do you think Nintendo still has to put out on Wii U.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
14nm stuff is shipping soon and seems very power efficient. Core Y is probably going to power the sp3. Not sure how their ultra low power stuff will be.
Prohibitively expensive, though, unless Intel decides that Nintendo is a good way for them to push into the mobile market from another direction and starts subsidizing every device. Right now the cheap-o build quality ASUS Memo running the Atom have heavy subsidies to make them affordable for their performance level vs. comparable ARM tablets.
Do you know exactly what big guns Sony and Microsoft are releasing for 2016 then?
Are they? Or perhaps my understanding of "low end" is off. Samsung and Google feel like they're pretty heavily entrenched there with their offerings.
UltimaKilo
Gold Member
I suppose we'll find out sometime in 2015, but my guess is also a Nintendo handheld.
Just Animal Crossing. And that might end up 2015 anyway.
Smaller brands too, like Metroid or Fire Emblem.
By eating up...do you mean hemorrhaging money like no tomorrow? Because I still have yet to hear anything positive outside of Intel mobile on the financial side, let alone having to merge Mobile and PC group just to hide the losses.
If that is still the case then it is a good thing that AMD isn't chasing the lower end market in that regard.
Nikodemos
Member
They still are, just not with x86. Their newest short-term product chart doesn't feature a refresh for their ultra-low-power (Mullins) SoC. They have decided not to spend any more money in that area until the ARM cores are ready.
PeakPointMatrix
Member
Theres no doubt it's the Nintendo Next.
texhnolyze
Banned
Nikodemos
Member
Fixed.
Though hopefully it'll have a more non-weird name.
I mean, they've put themselves in a corner with the <number>-DS label (they can't just increase by one), but the Gameboy moniker is best left to history. I suspect an unimaginative name like Portable Entertainment System (PES) or thereabouts would probably be the safest option this time around.
It'll have a gpu quicker than a Nvidia 980......
.... and 1.5gb total system RAM.
Who needs ram Apple? Ram is for mugs.
Nikodemos
Member
Apple's continuous lowballing of RAM seems pretty bizzarre to me. Though I guess it helps them maintain certain controls/limitations on app developers.
Anyway, I don't believe Nintendo to be as stingy with it.