Ottawa, CANADA - November, 20, 2006 - Semiconductor Insights (SI), the world's leader in technical and patent analysis of integrated circuits and electronic systems, following the reveal of the insides of the Sony PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3), reveals the insides of the latest gaming console to hit the market - the Nintendo Wii. "This is the last of the "next generation" video game platforms to be released and it redefines the way video games are played," said Gregory A. Quirk, SI's Technical Marketing Manager. "Using three-axis motion signal-processing technology, the Wii is a truly interactive gaming experience, where controller movements simulate actions on the screen."
The Nintendo Wii is the first SI has seen of the 90nm IBM processor, codenamed "Broadway", designed solely for Nintendo using IBM'c Power architecture. The processor features silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, which improves processing power and reduces energy consumption by 20%. "Nintendo has used both 1T-SRAM and eDRAM technology," said Don Scansen, SI's lead process technology analyst. "It remains to be seen if the NEC-MoSys co-designed 90nm embedded DRAM will provide enough power to compete with the game play offered by Microsoft and Sony."
Semiconductor Insights has completed a full video teardown on the Nintendo Wii, and are analyzing some of the components inside, including the IBM "Broadway" processor, ATI "Hollywood" graphics processor, Broadcomm BCM2042 wireless sensor with Bluetooth functionality, Broadcomm BCM4318 WiFi transceiver, Qimonda HYB18HS1232 GDDR3, Samsung K9F4G08U0A 65nm 4Gbit NAND Flash, and Elpida S1616AGTA 16Mbit SDRAM.
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