Exophase
Nothing good will ever come of Exophase.
http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=7876
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/13/nvidia-tegra-to-power-next-gen-nintendo-ds/
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/14/rumor-nvidia-tegra-chip-going-into-next-generation-ds/2#comments
It's still rumor quality but apparently there's been existing buzz surrounding nVidia about this deal.
What interests me most is the promise for backwards compatibility. So far, Nintendo is not known to half-ass it, with each case (GBA, DS, and Wii) including fully compatible hardware and thus virtually perfect compatibility. But including the already rather Frankensteinian DSi hardware in a new console when the Tegra SoC would do everything it can and more would be pretty crazy. Furthermore, the gamecard slot would have to be compatible, but electrically/mechanically speaking it shouldn't be a big deal for Nintendo to stick with what they have. It's similar to SD and SD is still going strong. Nintendo can probably push much higher capacity out of the format but they're going to have to sell them for much, much less to vendors.
So if indeed it'll have compatibility but not the hardware then this could mean Nintendo's planning software emulation. That'd be useful to know because if Nintendo can do it on hardware of this level then perhaps so could we on similar or better hardware.
This is assuming that nVidia would be pushing their current generation Tegra and not the next one. This'll get interesting pretty quickly.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/13/nvidia-tegra-to-power-next-gen-nintendo-ds/
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/14/rumor-nvidia-tegra-chip-going-into-next-generation-ds/2#comments
It's still rumor quality but apparently there's been existing buzz surrounding nVidia about this deal.
What interests me most is the promise for backwards compatibility. So far, Nintendo is not known to half-ass it, with each case (GBA, DS, and Wii) including fully compatible hardware and thus virtually perfect compatibility. But including the already rather Frankensteinian DSi hardware in a new console when the Tegra SoC would do everything it can and more would be pretty crazy. Furthermore, the gamecard slot would have to be compatible, but electrically/mechanically speaking it shouldn't be a big deal for Nintendo to stick with what they have. It's similar to SD and SD is still going strong. Nintendo can probably push much higher capacity out of the format but they're going to have to sell them for much, much less to vendors.
So if indeed it'll have compatibility but not the hardware then this could mean Nintendo's planning software emulation. That'd be useful to know because if Nintendo can do it on hardware of this level then perhaps so could we on similar or better hardware.
This is assuming that nVidia would be pushing their current generation Tegra and not the next one. This'll get interesting pretty quickly.
