A series of info leaking from various sources shed some light on Nintendo's next generation console, the already famous "Revolution", as it has been codenamed. The picture seems to be clearer and it was great time, since no one, several months ago, really had a clue of Nintendo's true intentions with this new toy (or is it?)
Point One: Storage capacity seems to have been largely over-estimated by most observers, some suggesting something in the region of 12GBs. Truth is, we are dealing with a device that can store 4.7GBs (single layer) or 8.5BGs (double layer), coming from 1.5GBs on the GameCube. Revolution is not playing in a High-Def movie. The true game is... in the games, Nintendo seems to think, and they may be right after all, considering the price tag of the two other "players". After all, they want to keep their development under control.
Point Two: Again, Nintendo does NOT want to compete against the Xbox 360 or the PSP3. It has been said and repeated, but developers "who know" can assert that Nintendo's primary objective is to go on the market with an affordable machine. Hence the lack of functionalities, the proliferation of which characterises both Microsoft and Sony devices.
And so for the RAM: it appears that the maximum "native" capacity would not come in excess of 100+ Mbs, comprising D-RAM and 1T-SRAM. This is built on the GameCube current 16MBs D-RAM and 24MBs 1T-SRAM totalling 40MBs, to which one adds 64MBs, so a maximum 104MBs. Naturally the -far from ideal- 512 Flash RAM could also be computed to increase the total embarked capacity.
The Gekko CPU -that of the GameCube- has been used by IBM, who develops the Revolution CPU. Another indication that nothing really "revolutionary" is expected. Likewise, GameCube's Flipper GPU has been extended to give the Hollywood GPU. All this, with a clock that, the same sources indicate, is "roughly" the double of that of the GameCube, although other sources doubt it, who consider that the work achieved on improving the caching can result in twice the performance.
Pricing policy is another keyword; Not playing against the two gorillas in terms of "HD" or "convergence"... revolution but, all in all, making the most of its GameCube brilliant story, Nintendo should be, according to the consensus, launching its baby at an approximate £150, or even less during promotion campaigns and other events.
To be (almost inevitably) continued...
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