StarDestroyer.Net BBS

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25353


EDIT: this is copy pasted material from a journalist who doesnt want to reveal himself##
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This started out in 2k4, some of the things here have panned out, some have yet to happen.
What you will read here pertains only research already conducted and information received about a year ago.
Despite being so old, a lot of the info however has proven to be true and the info has prove to be totaly credible.

Since summer 2k4 I have received a lot of information that I didn’t regard too highly at first but which over time has been proven right( early December news of the Naughty Dog racing and FPS games), news about the processors inside the next Xbox and the Revolution etcetera.

One of the things I heard that failed to grab my attention late summer/early fall 2k4 was with regards to Cell and the processors inside the Xbox2.

I talked about it with a few people and further forgot about it.

Forgot about it until my contact inside IBM emerging technologies in Germany contacted me again with new information, information which so far just like the old information he gave me has proven to be right.


Let me give the story in short:


Sony, Toshiba and IBM enter a joint venture to develop and market CELL, a multicore processor.

All patents will be jointly owned.

All but one, IBM argues successfully that the Power PC core (and this is very important) and all related technologies are theirs and theirs only.

IBM then goes on and uses the knowledge they gain designing CELL to make a different version Power PC processor better suited for use in high end videogame machines.

The development of this new processor goes at the expense of Apple who has been waiting for a long time for new desktop Power PC chips.

IBM doesn’t deliver them because their departments are working on CELL and a new core that uses CELL technology and thus is more geared towards specific tasks such as floating points.

Sony gets furious when they find out that in essence they have helped pay for and develop the processor that will power the next Xbox and the Nintendo Revolution, and even worse there is nothing they can do against it from a legal point of view since IBM put the lines ALL RELATED TECHNOLOGIES in their contract.

Apple is unhappy because the development of the new Power PC processors and CELL has been at their expense, the newer faster Mac´s they wanted to introduce long ago still are not there simply because IBM isn’t delivering the processors they wanted.

Neither Sony nor Apple however can do anything against it and just have to grin and bear it.

It is claimed now that the CELL **** up is one of the things that have cost Kutaragi dearly and caused his demotion.


Full post here: http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25353




Qoute from darksim on xbox365
"To briefly summarize for those who ask to condense more than two paragraphs of text, this article states that Sony, IBM, and Toshiba began working on the Cell processor together, then IBM pulled out early (hehe couldnt resist the pun).

IBM then used their knowledge of the cell design plusses, i.e. floating point stuff, and used it to design a better powerpc chip, specifically one suited to the game industry. Enter MS, which is using the PowerPC for the 360-

In essence, Sony partly funded the technology that is now going to be used against it in the console arena in the 360. Hah."


IBM Sony
Apple --->
Microsoft and Nintendo -->

Sorry Sony fanboys, but that is just too fucking funny. Those IBM guys have demonstrated that they learned their lessons when Microsoft fucked them over. 'Tis better to fuck than to get fucked.

After the whole deal with the rootkits in the CDs thing? Hell yeah, fuck up Sony however you can get away with it.

The question is, how reliable is the poster? From the replies in that thread it looks like he has started false rumors before.

Also, if this is true it implies that Nintendo is using the same processor as the XBox 360. That would be a very big revelation indeed.

Sony gets furious when they find out that in essence they have helped pay for and develop the processor that will power the next Xbox and the Nintendo Revolution

As a PlayStation owner (though I am a fan of Ninty) and someone who has plenty of good Sony products, I find this a good blow too. Why? Sony's latest fucking around with Blu-Ray and DRM has pretty much made me lose respect for their management system. They may have the technical know how, but they sure as hell can't organise shit without pissing from upon high on a great many others. Maybe this will get them to think clearer.

From the few specs released, we already know that's not the case. The Revolution processor apparently only has 1 core for starters.

*Tries to find the gaming news website which did the article on it last week*

I think we need an owned picture with IBM, and maybe microsoft in the background for this occasion.

Archaic` wrote:From the few specs released, we already know that's not the case. The Revolution processor apparently only has 1 core for starters.

*Tries to find the gaming news website which did the article on it last week*

That's incorrect; there are a lot of COMPLETELY unproven rumors out there about that.

HowStuffWorks, for example, actually gives specs for the processor and GPU, specs that are completely unfounded. Whether they are true or not, there is no proof, so we can't know for sure.


Wikipedia has the best listing of the actual information Nintendo has released.

* Processors:
o IBM PowerPC CPU "Broadway":
+ No further details.
o ATI GPU "Hollywood":
+ The GPU is believed to be being developed by the same team formerly known as the Californian firm ArtX which developed the graphics chip of both the GameCube and its predecessor, the Nintendo 64, before being purchased by ATI.
o Nintendo has stated several times that the Revolution's focus is not power, but innovation. While this may lead some to say that the Revolution will be graphically inferior, nothing is officially confirmed.
* Memory:
o 1T-SRAM by MoSys
+ No further details.
o 512 MB built-in flash memory
+ Replaces the function of an internal hard drive.
+ Will be used to store:
# Revolution game save data
# Downloaded games
# Game demos
# Patches or upgrades
* Ports and peripherals:
o Two USB 2.0 ports.
o No proprietary serial ports announced.
+ All Nintendo consoles to date have a serial port.
o Wireless controllers.
o A single proprietary output for video and audio.
o A dongle enabling DVD playback.
o 4 × Nintendo GameCube controller ports and 2 × Nintendo GameCube memory card ports (for compatibility).
o Optional USB PC-compatible 802.11b wireless router.
* Media:
o Slot loading optical disc drive compatible with both 12 cm and 8 cm proprietary optical discs (again, for GameCube compatibility) as well as standard DVD discs.
o 2 × front loading SD memory card slots.
* Networking:
o Wi-Fi by the Broadcom Corporation:
+ Built-in 802.11b & 802.11g support.
o No Ethernet port.
* Final version will be smaller than the presented E³ prototype, which is "about the size of three stacked standard DVD cases" (as quoted from the conference).

Any site you see claiming to have info on the processor is telling you a rumor.

Admiral Valdemar wrote:As a PlayStation owner (though I am a fan of Ninty) and someone who has plenty of good Sony products, I find this a good blow too. Why? Sony's latest fucking around with Blu-Ray and DRM has pretty much made me lose respect for their management system. They may have the technical know how, but they sure as hell can't organise shit without pissing from upon high on a great many others. Maybe this will get them to think clearer.

I have to say that I'm impressed with the standards support for the PS3. PS3 has SD and CF and MS, instead of only Memory Sticks like Sony usually puts in their systems. And it runs Linux instead of something proprietary. But I agree on the DRM point.

Praxis wrote:That's incorrect; there are a lot of COMPLETELY unproven rumors out there about that.

HowStuffWorks, for example, actually gives specs for the processor and GPU, specs that are completely unfounded. Whether they are true or not, there is no proof, so we can't know for sure.

...

Any site you see claiming to have info on the processor is telling you a rumor.

Less rumour, and more inference from known data. Take a look at it for yourself, and come up with your own conclusions.
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/ ... tion.ars/1

Arstechnica proves my point, however; we don't know what the Revolution processor is at all.

In conclusion, IBM currently has on hand two basic core designs that it could conceivably tweak for use in the Revolution: the 970/POWER4 design and the Cell/Xenon PPE design. Given IBM's track record, it's a near certainty that the Revolution is based on one of those two designs. The first question is, which one?

That means we can't make statements such as,

The Revolution processor apparently only has 1 core for starters.

But a lot of sites claim to know the exact specs so that can lead to confusion.

It's feasible that Nintendo is using the 360 core; I'm just stating that if its true, it's a big revelation.