Something else I was gonna post last night(my computer reset and I can't remember where the links are now) was actually from a little over a month ago. An AMD employee was talking about how he was on the team that was working on a new chip for a next generation console due for release at the end of 2012. He said this back in the beginning of march. It's an AMD Fusion based design which is combined CPU/GPU upto 4cores @ 28nm and if I remember correctly, is the same type of design AMD did for MS with the Xbox Slim to eliminate the RRoD for Slim models.
Just wanted to add more info;
This employee said that they were originally targeted for an end of 2012 release, and that They had already been working on the chip for a little more than a year (this was said back in March) and that chipd esigns like this usually take about 2 years. But then after that he said that they were told to pull in their schedules, meaning they needed to get this chip ready before the original date, which I would assume was early 2012 for fab and assembly in the consoles by late 2012.
Educated guesses are leaning towards the Trinity
2-4 cores & DX11 capable
The only problem with that is that I'm sure the Trinity is x86 and not PPC. Not to say they couldn't be based around the same tech and all. Get a trinity derivative. Also Nintendo historically likes to own the chip design so they can lower costs later.
Remember that AMD took the MS 3core PPC and fusioned it to their GPU and that's how we got the 360Slim. I'm sure Nintendo likely has their own custom multi-core PPC design and are having AMD fuse it with their current line of GPU.
Remember what the AMD guy said, and I paraphrase :
"We have been working on this chip for a next gen console for over a year. The console is due at the end of 2012 and the chip we are designing for it is part of our roadmap. We were told recently to bring in our schedule, which is typically 2 years long.... I think I'm still under NDA with all of this"
I could quote the guy directly, but I think he's already said too much and I don't want to risk his job with direct links spreading all over the internet. Paraphrased comments will have to do for now.
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I also want to clarify on some mis-translations from yesterday.
Wii 2 Breakdown
-Codenamed "Project Café"
-To be revealed @ E3 2011
-Architecture similar to Xbox360, porting titles from 360 should be very easy
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Fully Backwards Compatible - Plays GameCube and Wii games, and support all Wii peripherals (1)
-Specs : CPU is custom IBM PowerPC
with three cores, GPU should be an ATI from the R700 family (Radeon 4000 HD series), with a shader unit at version 4.1. Ram should be at least 512MB. (2)
-Controller is a touch tablet that can stream content from the console
-Controller Specs : 6-inch screen, single touch (?no multi touch?), front camera,
acts as a wii sensor bar (3), has a d-pad, 2 shoulder buttons, two triggers, and a full set of standard buttons (A, B, X, Y) & 2 analogs.
-Should be released between mid 2012 (in Japan?), and holiday season 2012(U.S.?)
-A big surprise about he console is to be revealed @ E3 (June 7th 2011)
What was actually said was that;
(1)There was no mention of BC, but since it has a similar architecture, there is no reason why it couldn't have full BC with the Wii and it's peripherals
(2)It has a similar architecture to Xbox360 which has a 3core CPU and 512MB of RAM. It also has graphics that are better than x360 meaning that it should have something more modern like a R700 series GPU
(3)The controller has IR emitters/sensors like the sensor bar for Wii
everything else seems accurate to the 01.net report which is in French:
http://www.01net.com/editorial/531680/project-cafe-ce-qui-reste-a-eclaircir-a-propos-de-la-wii-2/