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The Tech Of The Next-Gen Console Wars
Sergey writes "Ars Technica has an inside look at the next-gen console wars, with a focus on what we know about the
hardware in the PS3, Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Revolution. In particular, the coverage of the Nintendo's Broadway processor is the most thorough and best-compiled available right
now, and I think it shows that the Revolution won't be nearly as weak as its opponents suggest." An interesting sidenote from a Eurogamer article: the Revolution's specs may never be fully revealed by Nintendo. They consider the information irrelevant.
It is not yet know if the Revolution CPU will be based on the PPE design or the POWER4 design, though the Ars article makes it seem likely it will be PPE-based. But either way, it will with a 100% certainty be a custom made chip, just like the PS3 and 360 PPEs differ. IBM do this all the time, the 970 (G5) CPU is a stripped down POWER4, for instance.
Try out fish, the friendly interactive shell.
Personally, the main reason I believe Nintendo is not releasing the specs currently is a negative publicity thing. If they release just the numbers alone, then everyone would compare them against the PS3 and 360, making people think on whether they really want to buy a weaker console a year later.
However, if they release footage of games (Mid-november would be a good time, but unlikely), then they can show that they really do know what they are doing.
save for the fact that the Xbox versions of titles tend to be prettier than PS2 or GC ports.
this is not a fact at all. usually, Gamecube ports looked the best. Xbox could do higher resolution (Halo on an HDTV is pretty), but framerate and image quality was usually higher on the Gamecube.
Sound, however, was where the Xbox shined.