Samsung Nintendo AMD semicustom ARM-x86 Showdown Scenario

[monstercameron]

Take a look at the Mark Cerny talk on design choices for the PS4- the reason ARM got rejected was lack of 64 bit. And until 2 years ago they were gathered around PPC.

I don't think AMD will have an x86 core low power enough to scale down to a fanless, 3DS size device with a decent GPU. It just makes more sense to license an ARM core and focus on GPU tech.

Interestingly, the 3DS almost had a Tegra 2 chip but the deal fell apart: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-3ds-techspec-exploration-blog-entry

cat cores do scale down to very low power levels. the e1 micro-6200t should use very little power and provide better than 3ds performance.

I have ordered a fitlet model-b and I'll research ow low mullins can go.

also was it tegra2 or 3?

 

[NTMBK]

cat cores do scale down to very low power levels. the e1 micro-6200t should use very little power and provide better than 3ds performance.

I have ordered a fitlet model-b and I'll research ow low mullins can go.

also was it tegra2 or 3?

They can fit it in by crippling clock speeds, disabling half the cores and throttling the GPU to hell. Not exactly a great gaming device. But I could be wrong, a 20/14nm shrink may run cool enough.

Yeah, it was Tegra 2. Tegra 3 didn't launch until end of 2011.

 

[monstercameron]

They can fit it in by crippling clock speeds, disabling half the cores and throttling the GPU to hell. Not exactly a great gaming device. But I could be wrong, a 20/14nm shrink may run cool enough.

Yeah, it was Tegra 2. Tegra 3 didn't launch until end of 2011.

maybe but I dont think a 225mhz gpu will throttle...

 

[Fox5]

cat cores do scale down to very low power levels. the e1 micro-6200t should use very little power and provide better than 3ds performance.

I have ordered a fitlet model-b and I'll research ow low mullins can go.

also was it tegra2 or 3?

You'd be surprised how little power Nintendo's handhelds do. Those things have expected play time of greater than 10 hours with standby measured in days if not weeks. And they do it on a relatively tiny battery.

 

[NTMBK]

maybe but I dont think a 225mhz gpu will throttle...

225Mhz is already throttled, that's what I meant.

 

[monstercameron]

You'd be surprised how little power Nintendo's handhelds do. Those things have expected play time of greater than 10 hours with standby measured in days if not weeks. And they do it on a relatively tiny battery.

the first gen 3ds only had a 3-5 hour gaming battery life. the xl improved that by a bit. I think your are think of the ds lite that lasted for hours on end!

the 3ds does have a tiny battery though.

 

[Abwx]

They can fit it in by crippling clock speeds, disabling half the cores and throttling the GPU to hell. Not exactly a great gaming device. But I could be wrong, a 20/14nm shrink may run cool enough.

Yeah, it was Tegra 2. Tegra 3 didn't launch until end of 2011.

BBgame W8.1 tablet is specced at 6-8h with a 32Wh battery as well as a 10"1 1080p screen, and it use an A10 u6700T.

This chip is close to what Nintendo can afford given their 200$, if not less, prices targets.

 

[monstercameron]

BBgame W8.1 tablet is specced at 6-8h with a 32Wh battery as well as a 10"1 1080p screen, and it use an A10 u6700T.

This chip is close to what Nintendo can afford given their 200$, if not less, prices targets.

The 3ds has a minuscule battery, 1300mah and assuming 3.4V that maybe ~5w and you are comparing a +$500 tablet with an soc that can draw upto ~8-10W under load.

 

[Abwx]

The 3ds has a minuscule battery, 1300mah and assuming 3.4V that maybe ~5w and you are comparing a +$500 tablet with an soc that can draw upto ~8-10W under load.

One has to put perfs in perspective.

The 3DS official battery life claim is 3-5h, i guess that it implies that perfs are about the ones wich would be provided by a single 1GHz core + 32 SPs at most.

 

[jhu]

They can fit it in by crippling clock speeds, disabling half the cores and throttling the GPU to hell. Not exactly a great gaming device. But I could be wrong, a 20/14nm shrink may run cool enough.

Yeah, it was Tegra 2. Tegra 3 didn't launch until end of 2011.

Nintendo doesn't need powerful to make a viable handheld. Their current ones still use ARM9. That practically ancient by today's standards.

 

[MiddleOfTheRoad]

Nintendo doesn't need powerful to make a viable handheld. Their current ones still use ARM9. That practically ancient by today's standards.

Nintendo as a company is practically ancient by today's standards. The Wii U is basically dead -- and the 3DS is the only thing left for them that actually still sells.

They can only milk the nostalgia card for so long before they share the same fate as Atari.

 

[NTMBK]

Nintendo doesn't need powerful to make a viable handheld. Their current ones still use ARM9. That practically ancient by today's standards.

Oh I agree, they aren't going to come out with some crazy Shield-style actively cooled brick of a handheld. That's why I reckon they would go with A53 cores in the handheld. I was just trying to say that shoehorning Jaguar cores into it would probably not leave a lot of headroom left for any GPU.

 

[DrMrLordX]

They wouldn't use Jaguar, they'd use Puma or Puma+, if anything (from AMD). Puma+ is supposed to be used in Nolan on GF 20nm low-power. I'd say that Nintendo would be best off trying for some variant of Nolan or (if it's ready) Amur.

 

[csbin]

Nintendo's next-generation console is codenamed 'NX'

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/17/nintendo-nx-console/

 

[Headfoot]

Nintendo's consoles are always interesting. They have a good deal of talented chip designers in their employ so it'll be really interesting to see how they run with the IP they license

 

[ARMD Supremacy]

Nintendo's next-generation console is codenamed 'NX'

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/17/nintendo-nx-console/

Some people have posted comments that Nintendo is now just a third and minor player behind Sony, Microsoft and others in tabletop and mobile, but the press conference shows that they are serious about progressing in a number of directions.

Because Nintendo not only has a rich history of creating immensely popular characters and games from Mario brothers to Donki Kong to Pokemon Pikachu they helped develop the RPG type environment that attracts millions of player around the world.

So Nintendo has both the will and the way with over US$15 billion in cash and equivalents, to create a next generation platform (with help from companies like AMD), that aim to sell over 100 million units in a short time.

 

[mrmt]

Take a look at the Mark Cerny talk on design choices for the PS4- the reason ARM got rejected was lack of 64 bit. And until 2 years ago they were gathered around PPC.

I don't think AMD will have an x86 core low power enough to scale down to a fanless, 3DS size device with a decent GPU. It just makes more sense to license an ARM core and focus on GPU tech.

Their way of doing business isn't working as of lately. I think they will try something different this time, either x86 to align them to the rest of the industry or vanilla ARM in order to be very, very low cost.

 

[Vesku]

Looks like this is the ARM custom design:

http://www.kitguru.net/components/c...om-server-microprocessor-for-facebook-source/

Facebook custom server APU.

So if AMD did win over Nintendo it's likely an x86 APU similar to Xbox One and PS4.

 

[Fox5]

Looks like this is the ARM custom design:

http://www.kitguru.net/components/c...om-server-microprocessor-for-facebook-source/

Facebook custom server APU.

So if AMD did win over Nintendo it's likely an x86 APU similar to Xbox One and PS4.

The whole point of AMD doing custom designs is that they...can create custom designs for a customer.

IMO, if I was Nintendo, I would unify the handheld and console, but have the handheld target standard def at 30 fps, and the console target 1080p at 60fps. Same games, they just run and look better on the console, with about a 6 fold difference in power required. That should be enough to scale from a truly mobile chip to a laptop level chip. They could lower other graphical settings as well if they need greater scaling, tessellation technology was basically invented to do level of detail based on hardware specs.