Update:

>> there's an interesting tweet by IBM from June 2011 which seems to confirm that
>> the Wii U actually uses the very same POWER7 *chip* (not just the same core) as
>> IBM's Watson computer, which would mean an eight-core POWER7 chip. I find that
>> very hard to believe.

> If the recent information about Wii U's CPU being a three-core chip is true, this
> would mean that IBM purposely spread false information in June 2011. There's not
> even a POWER7 chip with 3 cores (4 cores being the smallest variant). And from
> last month two other tweets from the same IBM twitter account that, citing an
> old Engadget article, suddenly read way more vague and contradict the older tweet
> (same chip as in Watson vs. custom chip):
> http://twitter.com/IBMWatson/status/231902074890248192
> http://twitter.com/IBMWatson/status/240241146213842944

2 months ago, IBM reinforced the claim that the Wii U processor was based on POWER7:

http://twitter.com/IBMWatson/status/247460688283463680

Only few days later, IBM finally admitted that their claim that the Wii U processor was a POWER7 chip of some sort or somehow derived from POWER7 was a misinformation:

http://twitter.com/IBMWatson/status/248820933618442240
http://twitter.com/IBMWatson/status/248929547842641920

Love being made to look foolish repeating dumb rumors only to find out that the Wii U's processor is a warmed over three core version of the last processor.

Makes the rumors about Power 8 look less likely.

> Love being made to look foolish repeating dumb rumors

Always depends on who started the rumour in the first place. In this case this was no less a figure than IBM itself. So if IBM spreads misinformation about their own product, taking it for truth is not a foolish act in my opinion.

> Makes the rumors about Power 8 look less likely.

You mean the rumour about future POWER chips with Cell SPE-like units?

>You mean the rumour about future POWER chips with Cell SPE-like units?

Yes. it calls into play how trustworthy these guys can be before a products release.

I looked stupid repeating this.

> I looked stupid repeating this.

Regarding your praise of the Wii U processor only for the last 2 months, after IBM had admitted their misinformation ;-)

Andreas_Wolf,
Quote:

Thanks you Andreas for that boost to my ego.
Better go have a hearty breakfast.
Have a feeling its going to be a "kicked in the ass" day. ;)

@Jim,

We all make dumb mistakes from time to time. I think I do so more often than almost anyone else on this forum site. I have thought several times about just not posting so often, so I could cut down on the number of dumb mistakes I make, but then what would be the fun in that?

If you can't laugh at yourself regularly, then you are probably going to end up with an ulcer, or some other nervous disorder eventually.

Jim,
Quote:

IBM do have a habit of being a little vague about this sort of thing.

e.g. they said POWER6 and Cell were related.
This is actually true - but this referred to the circuit technology *not* the architecture.

Probably the same thing here - and there are certainly similarities such as the use of eDRAM.

Would that be kind of like my toaster is Power7 related because they both run on electricity?

> IBM do have a habit of being a little vague about this sort of thing.
> [...] Probably the same thing here

IBM tweed from September 16th:
"The Wii U is a custom 45nm #power7 chip. Same SOI design in #ibmwatson"

IBM tweed from September 20th:
"Pardon the error. It's a custom chip built on Power Architecture base"

I wouldn't call this "a little vague", but rather spreading false information and then posting a correction and apology later. Sincerely, I hope that such is *not* IBM's habit (spreading false information in the first place that is). To me that's a quite remarkable incident, as they started this POWER7 nonsense talk right when the Wii U was announced in mid-2011 and were subsequently questioned ad nauseam about further details on the chip and only 1.5 years after the announcement bothered to come forward with a correction.

Andreas has pin pointed the truly disturbing thing, this looks like they were deliberately making misleading statement. Certainly not "vague", and not only incorrect, but false.

So, can you trust "Big Blue"?

> this looks like they were deliberately making misleading statement.

That's also my suspicion. To me it seems like the purpose of IBM making the misleading connection between the Wii U and their Watson supercomputer was to keep Watson in the news, riding on the coattails of the Wii U's news coverage.

I wonder what, if any, involvement IBM has had with the development of the Xbox 720 or PS4 cpus?
WiiU's cpu looks weak even when compared to current generation of game consoles.
Does not bode well for Nintendo.

[ Edited by Jim 20.11.2012 - 17:46 ]

> WiiU's cpu looks weak even when compared to current generation
> of game consoles. Does not bode well for Nintendo.

Nintendo's devices have never been about computational performance. Their success has other reasons. The Wii was a success despite its low performance compared to Microsoft's and Sony's consoles. I suspect that the Wii U will be another success for Nintendo.

Agreed that the original Wii owed its success to it ergonomics.
But it was more powerful then a Gamecube.
And while the Wii U is more powerful then a Wii, there is no compelling reason to buy it.

> the original Wii [...] was more powerful then a Gamecube. And while the
> Wii U is more powerful then a Wii, there is no compelling reason to buy it.

There may be no reason for *you* to buy it, but others may see such reason, for instance this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii_U_GamePad

> What ever CPU Trevor and the engineers at Varisys decide to use for the
> next A-Eon motherboard design, I hope that [...] it will be a design that
> appeals to the MorphOS Dev. Team, so a port might be possible.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=717208 ;-)

> Wii U's processor is a warmed over three core version of the last processor.

Yes, seems so. More information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espresso_(microprocessor)
http://tenfourfox.blogspot.com/2012/11/1701-released-and-jawing-about-wiiucpu.html
http://twitter.com/marcan42/status/274120447023538176

> As I said I believe the CTS-1000 to feature Freescale's e500mc-cored QorIQ P4080 SoC.

Confirmed a week ago:

https://lists.ozlabs.org/pipermail/linuxppc-dev/2012-December/102563.html
http://www.servergy.com/portfolio/cts-1000/
http://www.servergy.com/portfolio/cleantech-duo-pack-quad-pack/
http://www.servergy.com/portfolio/cleantech-hyper-rack/

Reminder:

> Hyperionmp says:
> "The way in which it will be implemented however is already clearly defined
> and was subject to peer review by other developers. Obstacles to an
> efficient implementation were removed (e.g. the use of Forbid) and replaced
> in many OS components over the years (e.g. DOS). The foundation for
> SMP support was put in place, a clear picture exists what needs to be done
> to accomplish it and how. I'm willing to take a bet that it won't take 2 years ;)"
> http://amigaworld.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=34171&forum=33&start=40#627520

Two thirds passed :-)

Personally, I expect more PPC boards to be introduced. The Mac doesn't have to be the end of this direction. A-eon has announced at least two new systems. If MorphOS moves to X86, I can always move to OS4.
-

> If MorphOS moves to X86, I can always move to OS4.

One possible event, so many possible outcomes ;-)

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7183&start=92

Addendum:

> Ben Collins says in a comment on the P-Cubed:
> "We are definitely aiming this to be a low-end version of our CTS product line."
> [...]
> My feeling is that at the announced low price it should be some e500v2-cored chip
> (QorIQ P1 or P2, probably P1022 with DIU due to HDMI traces coming from the chip).

Interesting comment on the P-Cubed from a MorphOS Team member made 1.5 weeks ago:

"This board looks very interesting. I'm a member of MorphOS operating system community. [...] P-Cubed board may be our next step with its computing power and price. [...] I look forward to further P-Cubed announcements."

Does that mean MorphOS may come to the e500v2 surprisingly and against all odds? Or maybe P-Cubed isn't built around e500v2 (I'd be surprised here too) and the MorphOS Team member is aware of that?

Andreas_Wolf,
Quote:

Caught again by the indexer from hell.

Andreas_Wolf,
Quote:
You are just reading between the lines here. Not the first time unfortunately. This post on Ben Collins blog is my private opinion and does not represent any MorphOS Team view on P-Cubed. This computer is still a paperware for now, take it into account. I don't know what processor will this device use. On the other hand any low-cost PowerPC board is interesting to us, isn't it?