IBM Announces Wii Chips In Nintendo Hands

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.'"

Digitizers?

[headkase (533448)]

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?

Re:Digitizers?

[by Anonymous Coward]

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.

Not quite...

[GFLPraxis (745118)]

"The closer you are to the bar, the higher the sensitivity."

Opposite, actually. Getting too close (within a couple feet) of the TV tends to make it hard for it to get exactly where you are pointing. I tried putting the Wiimote close to the TV to see if it helped me aim when I was playing it at E3, and when it made the pointer go nuts the representative told me that it loses sensitivity when you get that close and to stand back.

I could aim better from a distance.

Re:

[fithmo (854772)]

As long as it works better than the sensors I had to strap to the television for the Power Glove. I bought it new, I still have it, it still works, and I still don't know how to use it. Worst use of allowance ever.

Re:

[stesch (12896)]

But using something like iTheatre (portable video glasses) could be a bit difficult, am I right?

Re:Digitizers?

[wootest (694923)]

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.)

Re:

[headkase (533448)]

Preview! Preview! Preview!
decoder = encoder

Re:

[fm6 (162816)]

You're assuming he knows the difference between an en and a de.

Re:Digitizers?

[headkase (533448)]

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

Re:Digitizers?

[MadUndergrad (950779)]

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.

Re:

[Bombcar (16057)]

The Wiimote doesn't work like the light guns of the past; it uses the two bars you sometimes see in the pictures, one goes beneath the screen and one goes on the side.

See this [nintendo.com].

Re:

[Dance_Dance_Karnov (793804)]

just 1 bar. It contains 2 sets of 4 IR leds.

Re:

[headkase (533448)]

Thanks.

Re:

[mad_minstrel (943049)]

Actually - the "sidebar" in the picture is the Wii...

Re:

[The MAZZTer (911996)]

The sibling posts say it all... but keep in mind the Wii is supposed to have a direct monitor connection port. So I'd think it would support LCDs. :)

Re:Digitizers?

[QuantumFTL (197300)]

According to the Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org], the Wiimote uses a 1 megapixel imaging sensor to detect (what is most likely) IR light from the "sensor bar" that's placed at the bottom of your screen. To see how that works, try pointing a remote control at a digital camera or a camcorder - if you press buttons the remote, it will light up brilliantly, yet not be a distraction to humans.

To be honest, I'm not sure how they plan to get full positioning information from a horizontal bar, as I don't think any of their other sensors are absolute, which could lead to serious drift problems. They likely use Kalman filtering or some such to minimize the error, but I really do want to know how they stabilize this.

I suppose it would be theoretically possible for the Wiimote to also lock on to the display (the frequency would not matter, just the overall size and shape) and use that to reduce uncertainty, but for now we can only speculate on the inner workings. I for one can't wait to get my hands on one!

Queue the East Fishkill jokes here

[CrazyJim1 (809850)]

So we had to decide. Do we want video games or fish?

Re:Queue the East Fishkill jokes here

[roesti (531884)]

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.

Re:

[novus ordo (843883)]

It's no joke that the IC industry is dirty. Just ask the people who live there [geocities.com].

Wii launch date

[DeanCubed (814869)]

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.

Re:

[Heir Of The Mess (939658)]

Just releasing a product doesn't guarantee anything. It has to live up to expectations or else the first few adopters will trash it on the net and general media and then demand will dry up. Same goes for the PS3.

It's interesting how you assume that XBOX 360 will be number 1 and that the Wii won't get past it. I know many people who would have never bought a console who are definately going to be buying a Wii. Even my girlfriend has been bugging me every week asking me when we can go buy one. This could be

Re:

[DeanCubed (814869)]

Well, I was assuming it wouldn't get past it before 2008. There's a huge head start, and may developers are choosing the 360 over the PS3 when deciding on what platform to put their game. Many of those games won't make it to Wii based on the Wii's audience, and it's hardware capabilities. And those 360 exclusives should keep it ahead for the next couple of years. If, however, the Wii has more games than the 360 by 2008, then there's a good chance that the Wii will overtake the 360 by the end of the gene

Re:Wii launch date

[shigelojoe (590080)]

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.

Re:

[rolfwind (528248)]

Maybe it's because she understood it to be a wee mote, not like a wiimote.

Re:

[uvajed_ekil (914487)]

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.

Nin

Re:

[KDR_11k (778916)]

I think the hardcore gamers are the ones that care the least about the PS3 because the hardcore gamers are well informed and have been complaining about graphics taking precedence over new ideas in gameplay for quite some time now. In fact I'd wager the PS3 aims more at the high-end hardware lover market, the kind that really wants HD. I wouldn't say those are hardcore gamers, a hardcore gamer is perfectly content playing a 10 year old 2d game over a modern 3d game if it offers superior gameplay. Of course

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

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.

First off, I don't think the Wii is hoping to cash in on Young Gamers but that is besides the point; the Nintendo DS was a machine of lesser abilities hoping to cash in on casual and young gamers and it is leading (and extending its lead) in eve

Wii, PS3, Xbox360

[j235 (734628)]

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

Re:

[Danga (307709)]

I agree, I considered a 360 but then didn't get one due to the fact I was too busy with other stuff. I am very glad I waited.

For one, I am a HUGE Zelda fan, so being able to play Twilight Princess will be AWESOME. Another big selling point for me is the virtual console since I can access NES, SNES, N64 (as well as other consoles of the past) games. I love retro gaming so having the ability to access games from all those older consoles kicks ass. I wish it could play HD-DVD's or Blu-Ray DVD's but since t

Re:Wii, PS3, Xbox360

[ZakuSage (874456)]

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".

Re:

[Danga (307709)]

I overlooked that in my excitement. My bad. I still think the Wii will be the winner this time around, especially for the price it is supposed to be released at as well as the other points I made.

Re:

[Knetzar (698216)]

From what I read Toshiba will be manufacturing them for Sony and IBM will manufactuing them for IBM

Re:

[masklinn (823351)]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC, Sony is manufacturing the Cells for PS3s, but IBM holds a plethora of patents on that architecture and manufacturing process.

IBM probably gets a cut of every single manufactured Cell CPU. This is IBM we're talking about, not Mother Theresa, they played a big part designing the chip, you can bet they won't let Sony get away with just letting them sell Cells by their own

Price Points

[dch24 (904899)]

A little googling turns up the following info:

There's a really good Ars Technica article [arstechnica.com] that breaks down the prices for the xbox360 and ps3.

xbox360: Xenon CPU $106, ATI GPU $141, total mfg cost $525 (the high end model)
ps3: Cell CPU $230, nVidia GPU $70, total mfg cost $800 (remember the debate? [slashdot.org] I think $350 for the BD-ROM is too high.)

Wii: there's no information out there on what components will cost. But the total price tag will be $250, and an educated guess says that only at most $125 of that ca

Re:

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist (906833)]

>Since this is just my speculating, I'd expect someone will reply with more info.

very few companies still source components for their flagship products from ebay.

It's ironic isn't it...

[admactanium (670209)]

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.

Re:

[DrXym (126579)]

Except the IBM processors are pretty stonking too. The Cell is basically a 8-core processor - one general purpose CPU and 7 GPU-like cores for handling large amounts of data. Supposedly it is much, much faster than any Intel chip at floating point calculations. This may be why Sony worked with folding@home to produce a PS3 client - to demonstrate that the thing could kick seven shades of shit out of any standard PC when it comes to intensive number crunching. I expect IBM also have their eyes on the thing f

Wait you mean they'll have enough of them??

[Korin43 (881732)]

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!

Re:

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist (906833)]

well when you don't sell everything at a loss just to infiltrate people's living rooms with your branding the economics is a lot simpler:

the more units you sell, the more money you make.

a business model based on actually making a profit is a strange concept I know, but maybe it's just crazy enough to work!

IBM Wii's on Nintendo's hands???

[revolu7ion (994315)]

oh, sorry - i misread the title...

Scary flashback

[tygerstripes (832644)]

The first chips are in our possession,' said Genyo Takeda

So... in other words, "All your chips are belong to us".

Re:Summary is misleading

[DigitalRaptor (815681)]

Technically 10 seconds ago is "earlier this year".

Re:

[PeelBoy (34769)]

So what was the problem again?

From now on article summarys should be 10 paragrahs long in order to cover everything and make everybody happy?

Re:

[Bob of Dole (453013)]

You can't wheat?

Re:Fishkill

[Y-Crate (540566)]

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.

Re:

[masklinn (823351)]

Dude, these numbers have been debunked, no one has any info on either the CPU, the GPU or the RAM, even Wikipedia doesn't use these numbers for god's sake!

Graphics aren't everything but I have become used to beautifully rendered worlds immersive worlds and effects and it will be hard for most consumers to purchase a 'next generation' console with visuals from the pong era.

Remember that the Wii only needs to go up to 480p/60fps (well all games are supposed to be 480p/60fps stable), the Xbox360 and the PS

Re:

[rnmartinez (968929)]

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

Re:

[squiggleslash (241428)]

Worth pointing out that the "part of the G5 family" stuff is based upon Hannibal hearing a rumour that it was offered as a laptop equivalent of the G5. This, by itself, makes no sense whatsoever. It's a relatively recent chip, the main maker of PowerPC laptops is Apple, they wouldn't have been interested in a 729MHz G5 to replace their ~1.5GHz G4s, and if IBM did have a ~1.5GHz Broadway low-powered enough to be usable in a laptop, what the hell is Nintendo doing using a version that runs at half the speed?

Re:

[uarch (637449)]

1) These chips won't be in PCs. They're a PowerPC derivitive and won't be running your x86 PC code. That being said its already possible to pickup sub-$100 CPUs if you aren't fixated on getting the fastest core out there. (Just like Nintendo didn't want the fastest possible core. They wanted good performance for low-cost)

2) I'd be surprised if someone didn't get Linux up and running on it but I doubt it'll be a common practice.

3) Yeah, Cell is definitely interesting to program since its parallelism is t

Re:

[G3ckoG33k (647276)]

Delays, delays, choices, perspectives, and more delays. Those in my view are big factors to market presence. Choices? Yes, should I buy this or should I buy that? It is not as simple as if should I buy a Wii over a PS3, or even an Xbox360? Maybe a new bicycle, monitor, or anything else worth a few hundred dollars, depending on season; that fishing reel was just an example of something _offtopic_ that may influence your buying pattern. Releasing a product the wrong season may be bad for your product's life c