Nintendo Revolution’s Hardware: Slightly better than a cheese sandwich

IGN (of all places) released some “confirmation” of the Revolution’s hardware specs.

Insiders stress that Revolution runs on an extension of the Gekko and Flipper architectures that powered GameCube, which is why studios who worked on GCN will have no problem making the transition to the new machine, they say. IBM’s “Broadway” CPU is clocked at 729MHz, according to updated Nintendo documentation. By comparison, GameCube’s Gekko CPU ran at 485MHz. The original Xbox’s CPU was clocked at 733MHz. Meanwhile, Xbox 360 runs three symmetrical cores at 3.2GHz.

Revolution’s ATI-provided “Hollywood” GPU clocks in at 243MHz. By comparison, GameCube’s GPU ran at 162MHz, while the GPU on the original Xbox was clocked at 233MHz. Sources we spoke with suggest that it is unlikely the GPU will feature any added shader features, as has been speculated.

The overall system memory numbers we reported last December have not greatly fluctuated, but new clarifications have surfaced. Revolution will operate using 24MBs of “main” 1T-SRAM. It will additionally boast 64MBs of “external” 1T-SRAM. That brings the total number of system RAM up to 88MBs, not including the 3MB texture buffer on the GPU. By comparison, GameCube featured 40MBs of RAM not counting the GPU’s on-board 3MBs. The original Xbox included 64MBs total RAM. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 operate on 512MBs of RAM.

It is not known if the 14MBs of extra D-RAM we reported on last December are in the current Revolution specifications.

I can already hear it. The backlash that is already declaring Nintendo dead in the water. Whatever. You know what this news says to me? This news + cheap games = an affordable next-gen console.

In my book, Nintendo keeps making all the right moves. The DS has shown that they are MORE than capable of gathering innovative, fun titles under the Nintendo aegis. No less significant, that it has happened on a platform that some criticized for being TOO innovative!

But let’s examine this issue from another angle: Did the Gamecube sell fewer consoles than Microsoft or Sony because the HARDWARE wasn’t up to snuff?

Think about it.

No, YOU think about it!