Topic: Rev Rumors and Speculations

[Truthliesn1seyes]

I decided to start this thread since trying to figure out where to post any Rev rumor I run across in these threads is way too difficult.  There seems to be too many threads talking about similar things that could all be included in one big thread.  All in all, I hope everyone posts all their Rev rumors here to keep things in somewhat of an order and make it easier for all of us to foillow.

Anyways, I've ran into 2 "leaked" Rev specs and I thought I post them here.  First, Han Solo (for those that don't know, he's supposed to be a Factor 5 emp that frequents the G4 forums) has posted revised Rev specs.  They are as follow.

Quote
Nintendo has modified the System 1 specs. They have deleted the System 2 specs as it is obviously expensive and really powerful.

System 1 Modified
CPU:
1 IBM Custom PowerPC 2.5 GHz with 256 KB L1 cache and 1 MB of L2 cache (an L3 cache is rumored). It’s Dual Threaded

13 billion dot product operations per second

Revolution GPU

ATI Custom based RN520 core. The "N" stands for Nintendo, and is because the ArtX team is with them, that is why it’s an "N".

GPU core at 600 MHz. Will support up to 2048x1268 resolution, HD support is still being decided. Will have 256 MB’s of 1T-SRAM (the RAM is much better due to some tweaking, compared to GC’s RAM. The latency and Cells are much more efficient and faster. Around 1.2 ns is the latency, on average).

32 parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines.

Polygon Performance: 500 million triangles per second theoretical, average in game would be around <100 Million/sec>

Shader Performance: ~50 billion shader operations per second

Revolution memory

512 MB of 700 MHz 1T-SRAM

Other bits and pieces
Revolution will support a PPU chip (Physical Processing Chip). There will be 32 MB’s of its own RAM, which will link to the CPU and GPU and the Controller.

There will also be a separate sound card that will support only DD 5.1 – DTS 7.1, rumors has it will have 16 MB’s, like the Cube DSP

The second specs I've ran into have no source as of yet and I happened to have run into them over at the Gamespot forums.  They seem to be even more far fetched than Han Solo's though.  Anyway, here they are.

Quote
"Hollywood" 65nm Custom ATI R520
24 "Pipelines"
32 Texture Units
96 Arithmetic Logic Units (ALU)
192 Shader Operations per Cycle
700MHz Core
134.4 Billion Shader Operations per Second (at 700MHz)
256-bit 512MB 1.8GHz GDDR3 Memory
57.6 GB/sec Bandwidth (at 1.8GHz)
300-350 Million Transistors
65nm Manufacturing
Shader Model 3.0
ATI HyperMemory
ATI Multi Rendering Technology (SLI)
Performance: Over 3x Radeon X800 XT (for single R520)


"Broadway" Custom 65nm PowerPC 970MP 128bit
Dual core processor @ 3GHz
1GHz EI bus
128MB 1S-TRAM
Each core has 1MB L2 cache (2MB total)
VMX instruction set
Altivec-compatible Vector/SIMD units -- one on each core.
IBM's CMOS SOI10K with Silicon on Insulator
13.225mm x 11.629mm die
1MB L2 cache
IBM's PowerTune technology
a programmable ABIST diagnostic
191 GFLOPs(just CPU)

Release Date: August 2006

I'm not tech savy so I can't really put in my 2 cents on any of these specs but hopefully others can break them down.  From what I've seen from other members on other threads, they say its unrealistic and too powerfull to fit into the Rev's small design.

[BlackNMild2k1]

the first set has 816MB of ram & 768MB of it is 1T-SRam(Q?)?

HD support is still being decided, but it supports upto 2048x1268 resolution?

that make sense, no really... I think they would do it....

I am no tech head, so I can't really comment on much else but...

Nintendo does have some more "surprises" up their sleeves,
but I doubt 800+ MB of ram is one of them and neither is extremely high resolution support but no HiDef  

[NotSoStu]

Take these specs with a grain of salt. Seeing how well-protected the controller was, I doubt there were any leaks about the specs.

[Bill Aurion]

Wasn't Han Solo the guy who leaked the Xbox 360 specs?

[BigJim]

Did finally getting some actual facts get boring?

I'm still annoyed at the G5 rumor. A "custom" G5 that's suitable for a $200 console would be so stripped it couldn't even be in the G5 class. The PPCs going in all of the systems are discreet models built from the ground up for gaming.  I can almost guarantee that except for a varying number of cores, the CPUs in all 3 are very similar.

The real question to me is RAM and GPU.

[ThePerm]

hey my name is han solo im played by harrison  ford

[Rancid Planet]

...and my wookie told this guy at Factor 5 if they didn't give him the Rev specs that he would rip his arms out of the socket...

[MrMojoRising]

I really hope the Rev really has a PPU, I think that it should be used in all three of the next gen consoles because physics are fun!  as long as I don't have to do any math...

[zakkiel]

The only PPU that will be on the market looks to be priced at almost as much as the Revolution itself. I don't think it's very likely, even with whatever corporate deals Nintendo might work out.

[KDR_11k]

I'm still annoyed at the G5 rumor. A "custom" G5 that's suitable for a $200 console would be so stripped it couldn't even be in the G5 class.

Depends. A console chip is guranteed to sell tens of millions without additional R&D, since R&D is the largest cost factor the chips can be vastly cheaper. The actual material and manufacturing is a fraction of the cost of R&D. Additionally, as production ramps up, yield increases and the costs go down. I think IBM also reached a smaller manufacturing process since the G5 was released.

But IBM would prefer if Nintendo used the same chip as MS so they'd have to do less R&D and have fewer different chips to make, meaning higher production of one type and higher yield.

[BigJim]

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
I'm still annoyed at the G5 rumor. A "custom" G5 that's suitable for a $200 console would be so stripped it couldn't even be in the G5 class.

Depends. A console chip is guranteed to sell tens of millions without additional R&D, since R&D is the largest cost factor the chips can be vastly cheaper. The actual material and manufacturing is a fraction of the cost of R&D. Additionally, as production ramps up, yield increases and the costs go down. I think IBM also reached a smaller manufacturing process since the G5 was released.

But IBM would prefer if Nintendo used the same chip as MS so they'd have to do less R&D and have fewer different chips to make, meaning higher production of one type and higher yield.

I'm aware of all of that, but I don't think I could be convinced it's possible or practical. We don't know of a specific market value for the G5's since Apple is basically the only customer, but we do know that the 2.5 GHz is very close to the high end currently, and the 3GHz doesn't exist yet in the market as a single core, much less an MP model. I can't fathom either option trickling down to a sub-$50 part by this time next year. And since it'd be overkill anyway, it doesn't make sense to try.

[Stimutacs Addict]

did han solo accurately predict that the NRC would look and function the way it does? No? kthnxbye

[BlackNMild2k1]

Not sure where to post this, so I'll put it here

there are official pics of the Rev controller that have been photoshopped(button changes)

Rev contoller from G4 Iwata interview
&
Look at the reflection in this picture

why the last minute button change, in the second photo?

for those not seeing what I am trying to point out, the reflection in the second pic has an upside down 'Y' with a lower case 'a' next to it  

[NotSoStu]

Here's a reasonable explanation for you:

For Revolution games, it would be silly to have two sets of A/B buttons. Yes, I know they're upper and lower cassed, but it would confuse people. So for Revolution games, they'd just be labeled X and Y. And then, if you're going to use the controller NES-style, then X and Y = A and B.

[Dasmos]

But isn't the point that they changed it from X[ and Y to a and b. The changed the photo hence the reflection remaining unchanged. I can't see any reason to change it to a and b. As Stu said it would cause confusion, mind-boggling.

[bmfrosty]

http://news.com.com/Intels+manufacturing+cost+40+per+chip/2100-1006_3-5862922.html
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'd guess that IBM can sell them as $50 parts and make a profit, probabally make back their r&d costs after the first couple million parts and pure profit from there.

As for my guess as to what the specs will be....

2500mhz cpu
500mhz gpu
512 meg of ram shared
32 meg of ram attached to a sound chip
sound chip at 125mhz

no physics unit.

[mjbd]

I am not going to try and break down what the specs will be, but I do think that the Rev will be about 3-5 times more powerful than Gamecube.  After seeing the controller, they have convinced me that they are definately not lying about there stance for improving gaming.  I would bet that Nintendo still try's to stay the cheapest, and processing power may take the least priority.  So we may not get the prettiest games, buy hey, 3-5 times better looking than RE4 is still damn good.  Especially when your immersed into the game because of the new controller.

[mantidor]

They managed to make the GC more powerful than the ps2 and also more cheaper. I suppose multiimedia features do really impact final price. My point is, I really doubt we wiill be dissapointed by Revs performance graphics wise.  

[BigJim]

Quote
Originally posted by: bmfrosty
http://news.com.com/Intels+manufacturing+cost+40+per+chip/2100-1006_3-5862922.html
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'd guess that IBM can sell them as $50 parts and make a profit, probabally make back their r&d costs after the first couple million parts and pure profit from there.

The article is ignorant to numerous expenses associated with the manufacturing of CPUs. Second, the $50 was a number I pulled out of thin air as an example. It'd still be too expensive even if the article wasn't flawed.

As apparent from Factor 5 and MattC, the specs in question are a fraud anyway. No sense spending any more time on a lie.

[BlackNMild2k1]

IGNCube mailbag

Quote
Oh, by the way, there seems to be an abundance of douchebags on the Internet who claim to have so-called leaked Revolution specs. Some joker calling himself 'Han Solo' alleges that he is an employee of Factor 5 and has specs for the system. As expected, he is a liar. Here's what F5 president Julian Eggebrecht has to say on the subject:

"Han Solo is a scoundrel, we all know that, but in this case he isn´t a very clever scoundrel. That so-called employee of ours posting on message boards under the Han Solo name certainly isn´t employed at Factor 5 or working in any way for us. He isn´t speaking for the company and he better change his story as to where he has his information from, or we will be forced to take legal action against him."

Incidentally, Mr. Solo's specs are likewise completely bogus.

[Rancid Planet]

Well even IF the Han Solo specs were real, Factor 5 would have to make that statement. I'm sure they're under NDAs about everything and anything to do with the Rev hardware and if it ever got out that it was a F5 employee that leaked the specs they would be in big trouble.

I still don't buy the specs though. Not because these don't seem reasonable. But because of how well they hid the controller from us. If Nintendo hid that controller away for that long without us finding out about it then I have little faith in any "spec leaking" about the Rev hardware being for real.

Call me cinikel...but also call me a bad speller.

[PaLaDiN]

The difference is that Nintendo researched and developed the controller inhouse as far as I can make out. I doubt they could do that for the processor.

[BiLdItUp1]

1.2 GIGAWATTS~!!!!!

[Artimus]

No. 1.2 GIGAWATAS!

[vudu]

1.21 jigawatts!