Wii U teardown done by Nintendo

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The CPU looks tiny:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/10/11/s...-wii-u-design/

http://www.engadget.com/photos/wii-u-hardware-design/

[Diggah]

Interesting they've gone with the same form as the Wii. I would have thought they'd have taken the opportunity to redesign it, especially in light of the fact that it will likely (eventually) to be up against the Xbox 720 and PS4.

[MadduckUK]

iFixit will be pissed.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

iFixit will be pissed.

Maybe they can go one better and do some die shots!! It would be interesting to see what CPU and GPU the Wii U uses. AFAIK,the rumours indicate a tri-core CPU with no HT,and a HD5670 or HD6670 level GPU.

[Ammar]

They have gone to pretty much same directions as Wii. They just need to re innovate as a whole because in the end uniqueness matters

[Shroom]

Very very interesting,..

[watercooled]

AFAIK, Nintendo and IBM are being fairly closed about what the exact specs of the CPU are; it's apparently a custom Power core, but not Power7, and they're not disclosing core count or clock speed. GPU is apparently RV7xx based, a bit larger than RV740 (4770) according to Anandtech. There's also another small die on the package, Anandtech reckon it's some on-package memory, which would make sense but it looks a bit small even for that IMO. Could be something power related perhaps?

Edit: Just to back up my theory, 512kB of L2 SRAM on Bobcat needs ~3.0mm², but the tiny die on the WiiU package is ~2.65mm² according to Anandtech. Bobcat is built on a fairly dense 40nm process, the WiiU CPU is supposedly IBM's 45nm SOI process so density should be comparable, and I assume the tiny die is likely on that process, or possibly 40nm if that's what the GPU is built on.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Perhaps it is a dedicated ARM core?? Maybe it is for one of the following reasons:
1.)Backward compatability
2.)Security
3.)System switches to it for low usage scenarios

[watercooled]

Hmm, interesting theory.
For backwards compatibility, the Wii also uses Power and apparently the WiiU CPU is supposedly used for that.

Moving security to another die could introduce problems; it could potentially make circuit probing easier for a determined and well-funded attacker.

Switching to an ARM core for idle use would probably be impracticable considering primary is Power, and idle power consumption doesn't seem that great; I mean it's miles better than PS3/360, but it's not much lower than load power.

[Terbinator]

AFAIK, Nintendo and IBM are being fairly closed about what the exact specs of the CPU are; it's apparently a custom Power core, but not Power7, and they're not disclosing core count or clock speed.

Well the CPU is supposed to be slow - slower than PS360 if the Metro devs are anything to go by - they've canned the Wii U version for now as it isn't up to the task.

So i'm not sure fi you can read anything into that.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Well the CPU is supposed to be slow - slower than PS360 if the Metro devs are anything to go by - they've canned the Wii U version for now as it isn't up to the task.

So i'm not sure fi you can read anything into that.

It could be that they CBA to produce it though,as the PS3 and Xbox 360 have been around for years and already have millions of consoles in homes, and it probably would mean a new learning curve for the Wii U too??

Remember,when the PS3 was launched for example??

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1687689...light_dev.html

“We had an initial look at the Wii U, but given the size of the team and compared to where we were last time, just developing for the Playstation 3 is a significant addition.”

[Terbinator]

It could be that they CBA to produce it though,as they have enough experience with the PS3 and Xbox 360 and it probably would mean a new learning curve for the Wii U?? Remember,when the PS3 was launched for example??

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1687689...light_dev.html

“We had an initial look at the Wii U, but given the size of the team and compared to where we were last time, just developing for the Playstation 3 is a significant addition.”

Well yeah, there are lots of permutations as why they can't/won't do it. I find it odd that he singles out the CPU, though. Most devs aren't as explicit. - even when the PS3 was getting crappy ports no one ever said it was slow.

[watercooled]

Given the die size and process, it leaves space for (very) roughly 4 cores+L2 the size of Bobcat's. However, considering these are Power and probably in-order (i.e. probably smaller than comparable x86 cores), 2 or 3 reasonably powerful cores seems reasonable. I'd expect integer performance comparable to 360, but the maybe they expect some of the FPU work to be offloaded to the GPU so made the CPU FPU smaller?

Bear in mind, console programmers historically moan about anything, especially if they have to change their programming methods; being expected to get into GPGPU programming might lead a lot of them to start complaining about CPU performance?

Edit: Beaten to it by CAT.

Edit2: It would also be interesting to see the specs of the tablet/controller.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I actually ninja-edited my previous answer!! I also realised the Xbox360 and PS3 have tens of millions of consoles already in homes. The Wii U does not and if you have limited funds,it makes sense you might limit development costs. It seems the Xbox 360 is lead console for Metro:Last Light and like they mentioned even the PS3 version is a burden for them.

About,the early PS3 games,devs were complaining that actual obtainable CPU power from the PS3 was poor as it was hard to code for,whereas the Xbox360 was more straight forward to develop for. However,as time progressed,it did appear the Cell was a bit more flexible than initially thought off.

TBH,until we get some actual specifications we cannot say,but from what I gather it might be a triple core CPU but with no HT.

[Terbinator]

About,the early PS3 games,devs were complaining that actual obtainable CPU power from the PS3 was poor as it was hard to code for,whereas the Xbox360 was more straight forward to develop for. However,as time progressed,it did appear the Cell was a bit more flexible than initially thought off.

But they still never called it slow, though. These aren't the first devs to single out the CPU either.

But yes, it would nice to see what's underneath it.

[watercooled]

Someone might be able to get an idea by destroying a CPU.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=1#post4484701