AMD, IBM Confirm Continue to Provide Chips for Nintendo Wii U

After Nintendo released the new high-definition touch game console Wii U, AMD and IBM confirmed the first time that this new machine's GPU graphics processor and CPU CPU are still developed and provided by them.

Since 2001, AMD (ATI) has been the supplier of Nintendo's mainframe chips. Nintendo's cooperation with IBM dates back to May 1999. Considering that Nintendo needs to ensure backward compatibility with the Wii U, it would be no surprise to continue choosing AMD and IBM.

According to the agreement, AMD will provide Nintendo with a customized AMD Radeon HD graphics processor, "support high-definition graphics, rich media acceleration and playback, multi-screen display." Whether DirectX 11, GPGPU accelerated computing, and other technologies are supported is not yet clear, but AMD claims that the chip has “a large number of modern graphics processing cores that allow the new host to have a shiny new graphics capability”.

The specific foundry supplier cannot confirm it at present.

Genyo Takeda, head of Nintendo’s Research and Development Division, said: “We value the partnership with AMD's design team. AMD's custom graphics processor incorporates AMD's best world-class experience. AMD will pass a unique entertainment experience. Support our innovative gameplay."

IBM promised to provide Nintendo with a new multi-core processor based on the Power architecture, supporting IBM's "state-of-the-art technology and using environmentally friendly packaging," such as integrating embedded DRAM to accelerate memory access speeds for multi-core processors. IBM plans to use a 45-nm process to manufacture the processor in a 300-mm wafer fab in East Fishkill, New York.

Taketa Hiroyuki said: "IBM has been a great partner for many years. IBM's commitment to Nintendo is highly valued and it is precisely in this way that we can provide a brand new gaming and entertainment experience to consumers around the world."

According to rumors, the Wii U's graphics processor codenamed "Wolf" is based on the R700 Radeon HD 4000 DX10 architecture, and the central processor is code-named "Fox" based on the Power 6 microarchitecture.