HiGame

After securing both the Xbox One and PS4, it would appear that an AMD SoC will also be powering Nintendo’s next console. Nintendo has been hinting at new hardware for a while now, probably to appease any disgruntled gamers and shareholders over the Wii U’s lackluster impact in the eighth-generation console war — now, Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed that Nintendo is working on a possible new gaming system, and AMD has confirmed that it’s got another major design win. Are they one and the same thing? Probably.

At a recent conference, AMD’s CFO Devinder Kumar said that the company had two major new design wins. When pushed on the details, he elaborated a little further, “I will say that one is x86 and the other is ARM, and at least one will be beyond gaming, right … They [the customers] are going to announce it and then … you will find out that it is AMD’s APU that is being used in those products.” When he talks about ARM, it’s hard to say if he’s talking about AMD’s 8-core Cortex-A57 server Opteron chip (which is rather boring), or a Project Skybridge SoC with a custom-designed ARM CPU. Hopefully it’s the latter, though that new ARM CPU isn’t due until 2016.



Over the last six months, Nintendo has made a few hints that it was working on some new hardware. Back in May, the company said it was, rather intriguingly, working on a cheaper console for emerging markets. Now, in an interview with Associated Press, Shigeru Miyamoto said, “While we’re busy working on software for the Wii U, we have production lines that are working on ideas for what the next system might be.” In the same interview he said he wants to see Mario lead the way on the next console, likening the bearded plumber to Mickey Mouse.



The innards of a PS4, with an AMD SoC at the heart of it

So, this isn’t quite confirmation that AMD is working on an SoC for Nintendo’s next console, but given everything that we know about the industry, it seems highly likely. It would be interesting if Nintendo’s next console was powered by an AMD ARM chip, but it’s much more likely that it’ll be an x86 SoC, just like the Xbox One and PS4.
Assuming Nintendo’s next console isn’t due for another year or two, we’re probably looking at an x86 APU with Puma (next-gen Jaguar) CPU cores. At this point it’s impossible to say what GPU Nintendo might go for — it could go for something old and cheap (a 2012-era Pitcairn GCN 1.0 GPU like the PS4 and Xbox One), or it could opt for one of the newer GCN 1.1 or 1.2 cores like Tonga Pro. It will all depend on timing, and whether Nintendo wants to stick to its cheap-and-cheerful strategy or compete with Sony and Microsoft for the flashy visuals (and the rich 25-35 demographic that comes with them).



The Wii U SoC (CPU and GPU), with the CPU made by IBM

If Nintendo does indeed go with a conventional x86 CPU/GPU, it will mark the first time, a) Nintendo hasn’t used some kind of crazy, non-conventional hardware, and b) that all of the console makers are using the same architecture. This might seem like a fairly dramatic move, but don’t forget that the last three generations of Nintendo console (the GameCube and later) have used an ATI or AMD GPU, paired with a Power architecture CPU custom designed by IBM. With x86 holding such a dominant position in the gaming market, and IBM mostly getting out of making chips, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Nintendo join the x86 bandwagon.

Of course, there is one other interesting possibility: Given ARM’s dominance in the mobile world, and the fact that almost all of Nintendo’s portables use ARM CPUs… maybe Nintendo’s new console really will go for AMD’s upcoming custom ARM CPU, paired with a beefy GPU.


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