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IBM Announces Wii Chips In Nintendo Hands

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the next-gen-consoles-will-send-me-to-an-early-grave dept.

simoniker writes "IBM has announced that the 'Broadway' CPUs created for the Nintendo Wii have been shipping from the company's East Fishkill, N.Y., fabrication facility since earlier this year. Nintendo, it would seem, is ramping up for the launch of their next-gen console in a month or two." Joystiq and Kotaku have the news as well. From the article: "Nintendo has also confirmed their reception of IBM's chip: 'The first chips are in our possession,' said Genyo Takeda, Senior Managing Director/General Manager, Integrated Research & Development Division, Nintendo Co., Ltd. 'Today's milestone marks the final stage of our drive to reach both core and nontraditional gamers with an inviting, inclusive and remarkable gaming experience.'"

7 of 258 comments (clear)

  1. Digitizers? by headkase · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm wondering whether or not the wimote will work with my setup. I have a tv card with a built-in mpeg decoder. So when I'm pointing the thing at my lcd monitor the raster information has been lost - no more timing signal at 60hz. Am I confused or does the wimote work in such a setup?

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    Shh.
    1. Re:Digitizers? by MadUndergrad · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You seem to be talking about some sort of lightgun setup. My understanding is that the Wii comes with a sensor that you place near your tv (or monitor) that triangulates the position and orientation of the wii, plus of course the accelerometer and gyroscope in the offhand attachment. So I shouldn't think you would have any problems.

    2. Re:Digitizers? by headkase · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My first computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80. I didn't have any storage mediums (not even tape) so I had to write something for it to do each time I turned it on. Sometimes I would press the reset button really fast to occasionaly cause a bad initialization. I really do remember the days of going uphill both ways to the computer shop. When I upgraded to a Commodore 128 (which I used almost exclusively in 64 mode) I unfortunately purchased an MSD brand hard drive instead of a 1541 drive which almost every piece of software depended on for copy protection purposes. So I had to reverse engineer my software to remove the copy protection before I could play it. One of the last protections on the 1541 was called V-Max (for Verify Maximum) and as a cracker I loved it because it was a third party product - once I cracked it it was the same protection for all titles.
      Been there done that. :p

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      Shh.
    3. Re:Digitizers? by wootest · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not really, just prop the sensor bar up about the distance away that the glasses are supposed to feel like. (If they are supposed to feel like a 70" TV at 4 meters away, just put it 4 meters away, and so on.)

  2. Re:Wii launch date by uvajed_ekil · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Hmm. This argument is sound and very well-reasoned, but I don't quite buy it. It works if you consider the two consoles and their projected markets to be identical. But with the PS3 being a more capable machine aimed more at hardcore gamers, and the Wii being a machine of lesser abilities hoping to cash in on casual and young gamers, you have to take more into account than release date. Even if SOny moves the PS3 relases date back to 2008, developers will still support it, and people will still buy it.

    Nintendo may "win" in the short run, but I would bet money that the PS3 will soon generate more game sales, in terms of units sold and units sold per console. Sure, some of what would be the PS3 market might buy a Wii, but most of them are not afraid to fork over big bills so they'll buy a PS3 when it comes out anyway. If anything, the suggested scenario will only play to SOny's favor for the 2007 holiday season: he PS3 will be THE release of the year since it will be better (not adjusting for the crazy price, obviously), and it will be new. When it comes time to think about another generation of consoles, I bet we'll look back at the PS3 as the most popular of its generation, though it will certainly not be as dominant as was the PS2.

    Or, maybe build quality and reliability will bite it in the ass and I'll look like a damn fool. I just can't count the PS3 out because of a late release, since there's still tons of buzz about it and it looks good (though expensive).

    DISCLAIMER: I own a PS2 but am not likely to buy any of the newer consoles within the next two years, as I am not a big gamer and favor the PC as a gaming platform. The price for the Xbox 360 and PS3 (projected) are way too high for me. I will NOT shell out $60 for a game, period. (At least not until inflation drives my salary up a bit and I find a game that can do my laundry.)

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    This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
  3. It's ironic isn't it... by admactanium · · Score: 5, Interesting

    that twenty years ago people said macintoshes were toy computers and ibm's were serious business machines. now macs use some stonkin intel processors and ibm processors are behind every next generation game console.

  4. Re:Interested in performance. by rnmartinez · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wouldn't worry. I played Resident Evil 4 on my gamecube with Component video cables and progressive scan - the graphics are way better then anything I have seen on ps2 or xbox1, so if you soup up the cube abit and you're doing everything at 480p I bet it will look great