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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.'"

13 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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The Wii will work on any kind of TV, because the TV has nothing to do with the controller. There is a small (about the size of a couple pencils glued together) sensor bar you place near the TV. It doesn't matter where you put it, but that general area is where you'll be pointing the remote. So put it near the TV, and it seems like the distance you are from the TV affects the sensitivity of the controller. The closer you are to the bar, the higher the sensitivity.

    2. 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.

    3. 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.
  2. Wii launch date by DeanCubed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, most analysts have predicted that the Wii would launch either mid-November (the 15th being thrown around a lot), November 1st, or sometime around Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. With this news that production has been going strong for almost two months, I think the earlier date is much more likely. If Nintendo can take advantage of a month's head start on the actual holiday season, it pretty much guarantees them second place worldwide behind the 360 until at least the end of summer 2007, and likely well into 2008. If the PS3 can't ship their 6 million before Nintendo ships theirs, it doesn't matter about demand. Plus, whichever console sees the most sales between November 2006 and March 2007 will undoubtedly get the most developer support, which will lead to an even stronger holiday season 2007. By January 1st 2008, the "winner" of this generation will have basically been decided. At that point, as we've seen with generations past, whoever has the most games wins.

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    Born to Play
    1. Re:Wii launch date by shigelojoe · · Score: 4, Funny

      Even my girlfriend has been bugging me every week asking me when we can go buy one.

      I wish *my* girlfriend looked forward to playing with my Wii with such enthusiasm.

  3. Wii, PS3, Xbox360 by j235 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The console wars are over before they even start. IBM wins.

    1. Re:Wii, PS3, Xbox360 by ZakuSage · · Score: 5, Informative

      Do you not understand the point he's trying to make? IBM is manufacturing the CPUs for 360, Wii, and PS3, thereby making a killing irregardless of who "wins".

  4. 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.

  5. Wait you mean they'll have enough of them?? by Korin43 · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's like Nintendo actually expects people to buy these things and doesn't need to limit the supply to make them sell out.. Crazy!

  6. Re:Queue the East Fishkill jokes here by roesti · · Score: 5, Funny
    Do we want video games or fish?

    Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.
    Give a man The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina Of Time and he will forget to eat for a day while his on-screen avatar goes fishing.

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    Attack its weak point for massive damage!
  7. IBM Wii's on Nintendo's hands??? by revolu7ion · · Score: 4, Funny

    oh, sorry - i misread the title...

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    Jesus Saves
  8. Re:Fishkill by Y-Crate · · Score: 4, Informative
    Their manufacturing plant, which no doubt produces some toxic chemicals, is in a town called East Fishkill? There's gotta be an interesting story behind that name :)
    "Kill" means "Fresh Water Channel" in Dutch. Since New York City was once called "New Amsterdam" for a good reason, you can understand why the word "kill" pops up all over the place. It was however, a cringe-worthy experience hearing about all of the World Trade Center debris being taken to the Fresh Kills landfill five years ago. I could imagine how people all over the country were reacting to hearing the name over and over again, without any explanation from newscasters as to what "kill" meant in this particular context.

    To those unknowledgeable about the origins of the word, it sounded like New Yorkers had particularly horrific taste.