Nintendo's Revolution slated for mid-2006; website claims specs leak

[Varsity]

Gamesindustry.biz (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=8658) today reports that computer memory suppliers MoSys, who kitted out the GameCube, have let slip that "Nintendo will roll out its successor game console to the GameCube in mid-2006" during a conference call. If true, the information is the first solid indication of...well, of anything about the console save for it's name and existence. Follow the link for more information.

The same article also mentions the Chinese site Unika.com.cn (http://www.unika.com.cn/), which claims to have information on the console's system specifications. The site (translated by Gi.biz) claims that they include:
Four 2.5Ghz IBM G5 Custom cores, with 128KB of level 1 cache and a 512KB shared level 2 cache
Dual core ATI RN520 chipset, with 16MB of on-board eDRAM for the frame buffer.

I don't buy the system specs for one minute coming from a third party site and so soon after the Xbox details, but a date being 'leaked' at this stage of the game reeks of information marketing and likely has some credibility. Not to mention an ever-so-slightly more trustworthy source!

[[HATE]MyLife]

Yeah! Take that MS! In your FACE!

/sarcasm

[Borys]

Even I could fake more believable specs.

[CaptStu]

I'm shocked their processor isn't Mario spinning a gerbil wheel.

[Rakael]

Yup, the Revolution won't be very revolutionary if they are pulling these kind of stunts. That is if Nintendo was even behind the "leak" of those specs at all.

[KNOTE]

These specs seem plausible to me.

[Heretic Machine]

How is this news? Everyone knows it will be coming out sometime in the middle of next year, we've known this for a long time. I don't see why this needs to be constantly restated.

[bobbler]

Rakael:
Usually companies don't 'leak' wrong info.. the whole point of a leak is to let out small amounts of correct info to spice things up a bit -- to get people excited of whats to come. Why you would assume nintendo would just start leaking wrong info is sort of silly.

So I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'pulling these kind of stunts'.


Also...

Those aren't unbelieveable specs at all. If you half believe the stuff going into xbox2 then this shouldn't be all that unbelievable -- even to the rabid xbox fans among us. Really it looks pretty equivalent to xbox2, but with 6 months extra of prices dropping that it will benefit from. (16mb edram instead of 10 is the the only thing that we can even compare, and not very well at that -- there are still unknown factors like bandwidth)

Whether those specs are real or not really doesn't matter, they are probably not too far from the truth. Theres a lot of ambiguity in them -- theres no mention to how powerful the 4 2.5ghz cores are (IPC? how many threads can they handle? etc), or how powerful the RN520s are (pipelines? etc etc)... so how you can claim its not believeable doesn't even make sense.

If half of you would open your eyes, think a little, and ignore brand names when judging a lot of this stuff, you might be better off.

[falak]

IBM will rule the world. Down with x86, I say! Off with it's head!

It doesn't hurt to post stuff like this, does it Perigon? I'd rather know about it, anyway. :)

[KDups]

Everyone knows it will be coming out sometime in the middle of next year, we've known this for a long time.

Link please? All we've heard are vague statements that the Revolution won't be last to market. This is an actual Nintendo partner stating a release window. We've known 2006, this is a little more concrete.

Oh yeah, and get that stick out of your ass;)

[Furious Wang]

This IS Nintendo we're talking about here, you know. Until I see actual hardware I won't believe a single date they set. They were showing Project Reality videos for how many years? And this may see a middle of the year release in Japan, but I guarantee it won't see light in America until at least fall.

[mister_slim]

Is the multiple cores going to be the only major difficulty programming-wise? It would be funny if the Rev is the easiest console to develop for next gen.

[Rommel]

16mb textures? Are they Voodoo 3 boards?

[bobbler]

16mb embedded dram. Quite different.

It would still able to use the system memory for textures n such, the edram is a cache of sorts (which wasn't mentioned in this little 'leak' of sorts).

xbox2 is supposed to have 10 mb of edram and 512mb for the 'system' and the ps3 is still unknown... so who knows...