embedded MoSys 1T-SRAM again going into a game console. [Nintendo Revolution]

[megadrive]

Audio confirming 1T-SRAM in Revolution, and release timeframe here (9 minutes in)
http://web.servicebureau.net/conf/meta?i=1112573237&c=2343&m=was&u=/w_ccbn.xs


http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=4846

GCA FIRST: New, reliable information is available suggesting a debut period for the Revolution.
Monolithic Systems Technology Inc., perhaps better known to most simply as MoSys, announced its quarterly earnings at 5:15 PM yesterday in a conference call. MoSys is the company behind the fast 1T-SRAM technology employed by the GameCube and is apparently involved similarly in the development of Nintendo's upcoming Revolution console as well.

Among the earnings information and "shop talk" present in the conference call, a tasty little nugget of Revolution info is present:


"During the quarter we announced that NEC Electronics will now use our
1T-SRAM embedded memory technologies on their advanced 90nm process, and that the initial designs to be incorporated in SoCs will be used in
Nintendo's next-generation game console, code-named Revolution," said Mark Voll, Interim CEO and Chief Financial Officer of MoSys. "We are excited to be a participating member of the Nintendo team once again as Nintendo will roll out its successor game console to the GameCube in mid-2006."

Nintendo has yet to announce an official release date for Revolution, but has maintained that the console will launch roughly around the same time as Sony's PlayStation 3 console, which itself is currently headed for a launch in 2006, also without a specific, official release date. Whether or not the date affirms to the Japanese or North American market is uncertain at this point, but it's still a reliable estimate. MoSys' involvement also shoots down a popular rumor that purported the Revolution would use 512 MB of RAM, but no 1T-SRAM.

With E3 right around the corner (next week) and Nintendo's statements that Revolution will be discussed, GCA expects more information relating to the hardware in the system and the contributions of partner companies like NEC and ATI.

http://engadget.com/entry/1234000727042901/

Nintendo Revolution for 2006?

Posted May 10, 2005, 1:31 PM ET by Ryan Block
Related entries: Gaming, Home Entertainment

Nintendo revolution!

Ok everyone, huddle up. Here?s where we stand right now?we?ve got a few days left be for all the big announcements, but we?re gonna lay it down like we got it. So, we know for sure that the Xbox 360, which is being unveiled this week, is going to be shipping in time for the holidays this year. Check. We don?t have much dirt on Sony?s PS3, but we assume it won?t be far behind?we?ll know more as soon as they let it all out next week at E3, or when we get some leaked info (whichever comes first, of course). And what now also know is that [the Nintendo Revolution, also slated for introduction at E3, will be shipping (as previously estimated) in mid 2006?this according to a quarterly conference call by MoSys, a tech supplier to NEC (who is doing the Revolution?s RAM). (FYI, the statement was made about 9 minutes into the call, if you want to bother listening.) Yeah, it?s a mite extrapolated, but MoSys is just the kind of company connected enough to know these kinds of things, but distant enough to have lips that loose. Yo MoSys, you want to drop us a few other details while you?re at it?

http://cube.ign.com/articles/611/611577p1.html

Revolution Coming Mid-2006
According to the system's memory supplier, anyway.
by Matt Grassamassina

May 10, 2005 - Memory maker MoSys Inc. today announced its first quarter 2005 earnings. In a live conference call with investors and media the company's CEO and chief financial officer Mark Voll stated that MoSys would once again be supplying an embedded 1T-SRAM solution for Nintendo's forthcoming console, codenamed Revolution. He also revealed for the first time a general target ship date for the still top-secret next-generation platform.

The news is exciting for two reasons: first, it's official word that Revolution will again use 1T-SRAM, the same memory standard that GameCube utilized with great results. 1T-SRAM provides significant advantages over traditional SRAM in density, power consumption and cost, according to maker MoSys. "Instead of six transistors utilized in a traditional SRAM storage cell, each 1T-SRAM storage cell contains only one transistor and one capacitor, thus reducing the silicon required and lowering cost. This technology has been proven with the shipment of millions of devices," MoSys writes on the subject.

MoSys did not reveal how much memory it would provide for Revolution.

Secondly, today's news suggests that Revolution will ship well after Sony's PlayStation 3, which is rumored for a first quarter 2006 debut.

IGN contacted Nintendo of America for further comment and will update the story later today if the subsidiary has anything to add.

GI.biz:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=8658

Nintendo's Revolution to emerge in mid-2006, says key supplier

Rob Fahey 15:18 11/05/2005

Memory firm MoSys back on board to supply SRAM for Nintendo's next-gen platform

A solid indication of the timeline for the launch of Nintendo's next home console has emerged from memory firm MoSys Inc, which has revealed that it will supply memory for the system, with "mid-2006" touted as the launch date.

MoSys previously provided the 1T-SRAM memory technology used by NEC for the GameCube's memory, and speaking in a live conference call following the announcement of the firm's Q1 earnings, CEO and CFO Mark Voll said that it would again be fulfilling this role for Revolution.


The most interesting part came next, however, when Voll commented that:

"We are excited to be a participating member of the Nintendo team once again as Nintendo will roll out its successor game console to the GameCube in mid-2006."

This is the first solid evidence that the Revolution platform is still on track for a mid-2006 launch. The console is expected to debut at a pre-E3 conference next Tuesday, but it's still not known just how much will be on display - with sources close to Nintendo suggesting that only a pre-recorded video of "next-gen footage" may be shown.


MoSys didn't reveal how much RAM would be going into each Revolution console - but in an unrelated story also doing the rounds about Revolution today, Chinese website Unika.com claims to have seen an actual specification for the hardware.

According to the site, the console will boast four 2.5Ghz IBM G5 Custom cores, with 128KB of level 1 cache and a 512KB shared level 2 cache, while the graphics will be powered by a dual core ATI RN520 chipset, with 16MB of on-board eDRAM for the frame buffer.

While both of those specifications seem eminently possible - not least because IBM and ATI are confirmed as Nintendo's hardware partners for the console - we've been unable to find any confirmation or denial of the figures, simply because no developers outside of Nintendo's tightly sewn up inner circle actually have Revolution details, let alone devkits, as yet.

Update #1: Fixed article error - on-board eDRAM figure is 16MB, not 1MB.

NEC involvment

http://www.tinyurl.com/8olxj

NEC Electronics Embeds MoSys' 1T-SRAM Memory Technology in 90nm Custom ASIC; Companies Extend Agreement To Use 1T-SRAM In Upcoming Consumer Applications

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 2005--MoSys, Inc. (Nasdaq:MOSY), the industry's leading provider of high-density system-on-chip (SoC) embedded memory solutions announced today the renewal of the existing partnership with NEC Electronics to incorporate MoSys' 1T-SRAM(R) technologies into high volume semiconductor devices for consumer applications manufactured on NEC Electronics' 90nm process generation.

"Since the commencement of our original licensing agreement in March 1999, NEC Electronics has successfully deployed MoSys' 1T-SRAM because of its unique combination of performance, density and power capabilities not available from any other competing memory technologies," said Tom Nukiyama, senior technical director at NEC Electronics America. "We now look to extend our relationship with MoSys to jointly offer our ASIC customers requiring large quantities of high-performance embedded memory a compelling solution to enhance their consumer electronics SoC designs. The manufacturability of 1T-SRAM memory makes it the ideal technology for reducing costs and increasing quality, which is why, at the end of the day, we see it as the ultimate drop-in memory solution."

"We are pleased that NEC Electronics will continue to use our 1T-SRAM embedded memory technologies on even more aggressive processes," said Karen Lamar, vice president of Sales and Marketing at MoSys, Inc. "This combination of our unique memory architecture and NEC Electronics' most advanced semiconductor fabrication technology provides SoC designers with tremendous capability for their next generation of highly-integrated products."