New DS finally on its way

Status
Not open for further replies.
Z

Zeta

Bulbapædist
Joined
Jan 31, 2004
Messages
7,482
Reaction score
715
http://kotaku.com/5381257/nvidia-chip-to-power-new-nintendo-ds
Graphic chip maker has apparently been awarded a contract to provide its mobile-centric system-on-a-chip, Tegra, to a new Nintendo DS, which will be announced in late 2010.

Insiders tell IT news outlet BSN that a single chip Tegra will supposedly power the new DS; the Tegra was developed for use in mobile devices like Microsoft's Zune HD as well as smartphones.

If true, this could explain why Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang declared that the Tegra account will account for half of Nvidia's revenues in the next couple of years. It would also be the first time Nintendo and Nvidia have partnered.

We are following up with Nintendo and if update if the company comments.
Click to expand...

FINALLY

I guess we really can expect Gen V in 2012.
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

D:

..I'll have to keep my DS until that comes out, then.

Generation V? Sweet.
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

Maybe they will bring back the GBA slot. *wishfull thinking*
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

Moka-san said:
Maybe they will bring back the GBA slot. *wishfull thinking*
Click to expand...

I wish they would make a way to let the DS play Game Boy, Color and Advance games, but that won't happen.

The GBA slot sounds plausible, though.
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

Zeta you do realize you make it sound confirmed when its really just a rumor and a pretty stupid one at that. I mean I doubt Nintendo would ever go use Nividia chips in their hardware unless they had full control over it.
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

I wish they would make a way to let the DS play Game Boy, Color and Advance games, but that won't happen.

The GBA slot sounds plausible, though.
Click to expand...

Nah, they are moving away from those games and already stopped selling them, so they wouldn't want this idea.

Zeta you do realize you make it sound confirmed when its really just a rumor and a pretty stupid one at that. I mean I doubt Nintendo would ever go use Nividia chips in their hardware unless they had full control over it.
Click to expand...

I'd only see the Nvidia thing working if Nintendo hadlehd consoles had graphics like PSP

It was here: http://brightsideofnews.com/news/2009/10/13/nvidia-tegra-wins-contract-for-next-gen-nintendo-ds.aspx that claimed that Nvidia won a contract to power Nintendos consoles:

When Jen-Hsun Huang, co-founder and CEO of nVidia announced that he expects to see Tegra capturing 50% of nVidia's revenue within the next couple of years, a lot of people thought that this is a smoke screen to sway the attention from its battles against AMD and Intel.

Incredibly how it may sound, from what we are hearing nVidia is dead on achieving its course. With a very aggressive approach, the company managed to sway not just Microsoft with the Zune HD multimedia player [based on Tegra APX 2600] or Samsung's BeatPlayer M1 [also known as YP-M1], but also a long-time IBM and ATI customer - Nintendo.

Launched in 2004, the Nintendo DS and its two latter redesigns [DS Lite and DSi] sold in massive 111.49 million units. With almost 40 million handheld consoles sold in United States alone, Nintendo DS owns 68.3% of worldwide market share.

As the time passed by, Nintendo started to work on the successor of its handheld console with a debut planned for late 2010 [Tokyo Game Show?]. According to our confidential sources, Nintendo is going to use Tegra System-on-Chip processor for the successor of DS/DSi handheld console. Unlike the current design, nVidia offered a single-chip proposal to Nintendo, a company famous for keeping the hardware platform absolutely simple.

Given the fact that Nintendo DS hardware is based upon 16-bit and 32-bit ARM cores, it looks like Next-Gen DS could be backwards compatible with the DS application library. According to our sources, all of the apps that came for old DS could run on a single ARM11 core, yet alone the next-gen CorTex-A9-based Tegra, leaving graphics subsystem to do "something smarter".

Currently, we have no information what exact chip is being used [just that nVidia won the contract], but with the debut set for February 2010, the second generation of Tegra chips could make an excellent base [to be launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona].
The question of power consumption and performance is quite aninteresting one. With Gen2 Tegra offering quite a graphics punch;GeForce 9 based hardware [CUDA-enabled design] should offer immenseexperience on small screens - we see no reason why you could not have4x Anti-Aliasing and 8x Anisotropic filtering on a dual-screen system.If Nintendo picked the current gen hardware, i.e. Tegra 600 or APX 2600- it will be getting 65nm chips. If they go with 2nd gen parts, theywill get 40nm chips offering higher performance and lower powerconsumption. The moment we learn about the exact hardware going intoNintendo's next-gen console, we'll inform you.

Thus, it is not hard for us to imagine that Tegra could outship GeForce boards just like Intel's Atom CPU shipped in more units than expensive Nehalem processors. Naturally, the profit ratio is significantly different, but something in the range of $4-5 per chip would mean nVidia could earn half a billion USD from a single deal [over the course of life for the Nintendo's next-gen part].

Now, the billion dollar question is: if Nintendo chose nVidia for the handheld console, does that mean nVidia may have an entrance into the lucrative Wii business? Bear in mind that Wii console was sold in 53.97 million units, taking almost half of current console market [48.4%, according to VGchartz.com]. Also, we wonder what is going to be in next-generation PlayStation Portable...
Click to expand...
 
Re: nVidia chips for Nintendo

That would be way too soon. Seeing as the DSi is a GBC-like update to the DS, I would assume its successor would follow after the same amount of time that passed between the GBC and GBA. That's 3 years, which would put it in 2012.
 
Re: nVidia chips for Nintendo

Jeff said:
That would be way too soon. Seeing as the DSi is a GBC-like update to the DS, I would assume its successor would follow after the same amount of time that passed between the GBC and GBA. That's 3 years, which would put it in 2012.
Click to expand...

Well 2012 maybe, but because DS games are so popular, it could be for next DS as I can't see anything truely replacing DS stuff in a long time
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

I just hope they don't make the cartridges any smaller they cut off like half of the original size every time.
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

Somari said:
I wish they would make a way to let the DS play Game Boy, Color and Advance games, but that won't happen.

The GBA slot sounds plausible, though.
Click to expand...

it could work. gameboy SP's slot worked with Game boy color games
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

Magmortar said:
I just hope they don't make the cartridges any smaller they cut off like half of the original size every time.
Click to expand...

Nah, I can see the same DS carts being used, they are too popular and many would be upset if the new DS (with the name DS) could not use DS carts anymore, but needed new ones. Maybe the newer DS could handle higher capicity DS carts, like SDHC over SD? Still use old carts, but need this system for new games?

I am getting this from what I posted above:

Given the fact that Nintendo DS hardware is based upon 16-bit and 32-bit ARM cores, it looks like Next-Gen DS could be backwards compatible with the DS application library. According to our sources, all of the apps that came for old DS could run on a single ARM11 core, yet alone the next-gen CorTex-A9-based Tegra, leaving graphics subsystem to do "something smarter".
Click to expand...
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

Yup.

2012 already seemed like the perfect year for Gen V. So if the rumor is true, it will be announced in late 2010 and launch in 2011? Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Re: nVidia chips for Nintendo

Wait, a DS with nVidia...

Graphics like never before.
 
Re: nVidia chips for Nintendo

excellent choice for graphics!!!!!
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

That seems to be the timeframe, yes. Early to mid 2011 launch which would probably leave Gen V for late 2012.
 
Re: New DS Finally on it's Way

I saw this on PokeCharms today; credit going to Doctor Oak.

This is good news for me, since I really don't plan on buying a DSi anytime soon, since I still have a brand new Polar White DS that needs to be begun to be used after my Black Onyx kicks the bucket. This will give me sometime to let my Onyx one go and start on the Polar White, skipping right over the DSi. But who really knows? I could end up using my White one while my Black one is still alive and well, and then just pick up a new one. Regardless of its release date, I can guarantee that I'll still have a Lite when this new one does come out, if the news is even true.
 
Re: nVidia chips for Nintendo

I always thought that the DS' 3D engine looked kinda blah. I hope this really helps it out.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom