Topic: Wii U - e3 is over... now what?

[Caterkiller]

Nintendo trademarks The Last Ranger! New franchise? Sure hope so!

http://mynintendonews.com/2012/03/15/nintendo-files-trademark-for-the-last-ranger/

[Kairon]

I OMG DILLON CONSOLE GAME?!?!?! I HOPE SO!!!!

[Adrock]

Nintendo trademarks The Last Ranger! New franchise? Sure hope so!

http://mynintendonews.com/2012/03/15/nintendo-files-trademark-for-the-last-ranger/

It's a sequel to The Last Story. Obvs. /not really

[MysticGohan]

Maybe it's a reference to The Lone Ranger?

[Caterkiller]

Really curious if it's some new anthropomorphic character or a human. I'd sure like to see some new non-human mascot like characters soon.

[Retro Deckades]

According to this awful website, Microsoft has issued a statement saying that the next XBOX will definitely NOT be at this year's E3, nor will it be out in 2012. http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/122/1220897p1.html

Sounds like great news for the Wii U.

[NWR_insanolord]

That seems like a huge mistake on Microsoft's part. Not releasing this year is fine, but allowing Nintendo the ability to hype up the Wii U without doing any kind of bullshit presentation of "this is what we're doing, look how much better it is" seems like a bad move.

[Chozo Ghost]

That seems like a huge mistake on Microsoft's part. Not releasing this year is fine, but allowing Nintendo the ability to hype up the Wii U without doing any kind of bullshit presentation of "this is what we're doing, look how much better it is" seems like a bad move.

Napoleon said "do not interrupt your opponent when he is about to make a mistake".

That said, let Microsoft do what they want. Their loss will be Nintendo's gain.

[TJ Spyke]

Xbox 3 may not be shown at E3, but I think Microsoft will at least announce that they are working on it.

[Kairon]

I think if Nintendo wasn't involved, both MS and Sony wouldn't mind waiting until 2014-2015 before launching their next systems.

[NWR_insanolord]

That seems like a huge mistake on Microsoft's part. Not releasing this year is fine, but allowing Nintendo the ability to hype up the Wii U without doing any kind of bullshit presentation of "this is what we're doing, look how much better it is" seems like a bad move.

Napoleon said "do not interrupt your opponent when he is about to make a mistake".

That said, let Microsoft do what they want. Their loss will be Nintendo's gain.

I don't have an opponent. I'm just an objective observer with an armchair analysis. Of course Microsoft will do what they want, and I may be wrong and it's a good move in the long run.

[Retro Deckades]

I think if Nintendo wasn't involved, both MS and Sony wouldn't mind waiting until 2014-2015 before launching their next systems.

I tend to agree. We might've even possibly seen the 10 year console life cycle come to fruition. Maybe.

[MegaByte]

On the other hand, without the Wii, the Kinect may never have been seen as viable, and Microsoft wouldn't have been able to reset the clock.

[BlackNMild2k1]

This may not be WIi U related, but I was on my phone and wanted to dump the link before I lost it, so now I'm flushing it out some.

http://andriasang.com/con0b0/trademarks/

Nintendo gave its 3DS Brain Age sequel the code name "Oni Training," or "Demon Training."
[...]
In other trademark news, Nintendo also registered "The Last Ranger," and "Saigo no Youjinbou" (maybe... "Last Bodyguard").

Someone was asking for a more western game.... this might not be what you meant, but "the Last Ranger" could be a very "western" title.

[Kairon]

On the other hand, without the Wii, the Kinect may never have been seen as viable, and Microsoft wouldn't have been able to reset the clock.

Hmmm, this is a good point.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Looks like MoSys & their 1T-SRAM will not be making it into the Wii U this time around as dug up by NeoGAF super sleuth Rösti
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=36063932&postcount=3435

Some news, MoSys' 1T-SRAM (or other technologies from that company) will not be represented in the Wii U:

Our royalty revenue also has been highly concentrated among a few licensees, and we expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future. In particular, a substantial portion of our licensing and royalty revenue in 2011, 2010 and 2009 has come from the license fees and royalties for integrated circuits supplied by one integrated device manufacturer, or IDM, for Nintendo® gaming devices that incorporate our 1T-SRAM technology. Royalties earned from this customer represented 16%, 22% and 39% of total revenue in 2011, 2010 and 2009, respectively. This manufacturer faces intense competitive pressure in the video game market, which is characterized by extreme volatility, costly new product introductions and rapidly shifting consumer preferences, and we cannot be certain whether their sales of products incorporating our technology will increase or decrease beyond prior or current levels. In addition, Nintendo is expected to introduce a new gaming system in 2012, which does not incorporate our technology, and will likely cause a reduction in royalties we receive related to the existing gaming devices.

Source: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...07956z10-k.htm

Now, the 1T-SRAM technology licensing has changed, as I wrote here, as Invensas purchased a greater number of patents from MoSys in 2011. This may have lead to Nintendo ditching this technology. What it means for backwards compatibility, seeing as Wii incorporates the 1T-SRAM technology, I don't know. However, the secrets are starting to unfold. Now, I wonder what company Nintendo has chosen for RAM solutions.

it was speculated before, but it looks like that pretty much confirms it right there. But I don't think there was any room for the 1T-SRAM anyway with all that eDRAM that IBM is gonna cram into the Wii U

[Chozo Ghost]

In layman's terms, what is 1T-SRAM? How does it differ from eDRAM? and why should we care?

[TJ Spyke]

1T-SRAM uses less power than eDRAM and has significantly faster speed than eDRAM.

[Kytim89]

1T-SRAM uses less power than eDRAM and has significantly faster speed than eDRAM.

So they will be able to stream faster to the uMote without adding extra strain to the console.

[TJ Spyke]

No, 1T-SRAM is what was used in Wii but will NOT be in Wii U. So if eDRAM is used instead, then it will take up more power and be slower than 1T-SRAM.

[oohhboy]

You don't, but it has important implications for developers. 1T SRAM has a much lower latency than normal RAM. It meant the developer would be less likely you hit the memory wall problem or at least they wouldn't have to do so many work arounds. It also means the GC and Wii are architecturally very efficient machines getting more done per clock. It worked well for the GC, but the Wii having not much under the hood in the first place being efficient with less still meant you had less to work with.

Unfortunately 1T SRAM is more expensive than it's DRAM counterparts per MB, but way cheaper than other SRAMs. It meant you can have fast responsive memory, but not much of it. From the looks of it, Nintendo has re-prioritised the need for more RAM. While it will take an efficacy hit, it will more importantly bring the programming environment more inline with everybody else and help provide the extra RAM needed to run both the TV and the tablet(s), something you just can't program away(You can just buy more RAM, but Nintendo's a cheapskate and it can get expensive quick). DRAM somewhat compensates for it's slowness by providing a lot of bandwidth instead, so you can waste some of it pre-ordering for things you don't need ahead of time instad of waiting for it to arrive.

[MegaByte]

1T-SRAM uses less power than eDRAM and has significantly faster speed than eDRAM.

Do you have a source on that? From what I've seen, 1T-SRAM (which is actually a cleverly named DRAM) and IBM's eDRAM are very similar.

[TJ Spyke]

Wikipedia, so it should be taken with a grain of salt I suppose (Wikipedia is normally not bad since most of their stuff is sourced, but this particular info has no source listed with it).

[MegaByte]

Well, it's just out of date, which is why I was wondering if you had new specs. The article even says

Some engineers use the terms 1T-SRAM and "embedded DRAM" interchangeably, as some foundries provide Mosys's 1T-SRAM as “eDRAM”.

They probably got the quote from MoSys's PR, which is quite out of date AFAICT and was referring to traditional embedded RAM rather than IBM's tech. I can't find any recent numbers for MoSys, but if they haven't improved significantly, IBM's eDRAM blows 1T-SRAM out of the water. There's no reason for Nintendo to use it now, so they dumped it.

[Louieturkey]

Is eDRAM cheaper?  If so, will Nintendo listen to Epic and put 4GB in the WiiU?