Revolution wireless transceivers

EDIT: The source can be founded in http://oami.eu.int/RCDOnline/RequestManager, just put "Nintendo" as the owner in the second line of the form and "filling date"/"decending" in the last line, then click search. You will see the pictures of the tranceivers.

First of all what is a transceiver? A transceiver is an aparatus that serves like a receiver and also as a transmiter. This is a wireless one so it could function with bluetooth technology, wifi or others. So why Nintendo uses one of those in Revolution? They are actually showing one to the press... the revolution controller. The revolution controller serves as this two types of aparatus... remember that the controller sends data to the console when the buttons are pressed and the position of the controller also is data that needs to send to the console, this is the transmiter. But also the controller acts like a receiver when using the rummble functionality, cause it receives data from the console when the command for rummble is sent.

I founded a Nintendo patent filled some days ago that shows a transceiver. I tryied to think how this apparatus could be used in all the nintendo brand of apparatus and I thought about DS. Maybe this apparatus could be used for some DS hotspot service, but chances are low.

The apparatus seems very similar to front of the revolution controller. Look to the pictures









What is the use of this transceivers? Them could be used like another type of input from the user... they can be placed in any part of the user body and can send data to the console like the position of that body part. But I doubt this transceivers have all the technology for calibrating them like the controller, maybe they just tell the console the position in reference to the console itself but not rotational info or some other type of. Its a possibility but I don´t think it is their use.

It´s more probably that its use is to receive the info from the controller(s) and to send info to the controller(s). They seem that can be placed in a side or in the top of the T.V.. They have like a pivot below... maybesomething sticky can be placed there to make this transceivers be firmly grabbed to the T.V.

The patent can be found in http://oami.eu.int/RCDOnline/RequestManager but I don´t know for sure if the link sends you directly to the pictures. The patent was filled in the page "Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market" from E.U..

Update Revolution´s dev kit info

The guys over Revolution IGN had update information about development kits. It´s an interesting read. The link is http://revolution.ign.com. Have a nice day.

Revolution microphone

Hello everyone,


I am starting to enjoy this a lot hahaha. I haven´t made a blog before, it´s like a new baby for me. Please forgive me if I am a bit heavy and egocentric talking about me and the blog hahaha but its about time to pass the initial effect.

Ok so the title is called "Revolution microphone" for something... yes, We had the mic in front of our eyes for all this months. Like in 4 distinct patents we could see in the diagram that there are two types of audio input, and 1 audio output. The output goes to the speakers. The inputs are from 2 distinct sources. The first one comes from a "Mass Storage Access Device" in a type of "streaming audio" towards the Audio/Graphics procesor (red block to yellow block). As we can see in the diagram below this "Mass Sotrage Access Device" are Discs... and the input could be audio effects and soundtrack from the game itself (Disc).



But the other input comes from nowhere (blue block)... This is the text from the patent

Audio codec 122 can receive audio inputs via a buffer 124 and provide them to graphics and audio processor 114 for processing (e.g., mixing with other audio signals the processor generates and/or receives via a streaming audio output of mass storage access device 106).

So it seems that audio comes from other source than the discs so from what type of periferial or inner system can come??? There are not many answers for this. A mic is the most realistic answer. Also mentions a buffer (number 124) from this audio input. The buffer can send the analog audio (voice) through the codec (green block) so it can transforme the analog audio to digital one, so the audio/graphics processor can work with it. An then we can continue to a more detail explanation how this mic could work with Revolution... see the next diagram



The patent says

Audio interface and mixer 1300 interfaces with audio codec 122, and can also mix audio from different sources (e.g., streaming audio from mass storage access device 106, the output of audio DSP 156, and external audio input received via audio codec 122).

This is a representation of the Graphics and audio processor (light blue). We have the memory interface and the audio memory itself (blue and purple blocks). The audio interface and mixer (yellow block) receives input from the streaming audio in and from the codec (red and green block) and also from the Audio DSP (Audio rendering maybe?). So remember that the codec (green) outputs to the speakers, but inputs from this buffer that I think comes from the mic. When the audio from the codec gets to the Graphics and audio processor in a digital signal it can be "interpreted" so maybe audio commands like the DS could be possible for Revolution. It is not so difficult to think a mic can be added cause isn`t a costly feature and can help getting less buttons on the controller, right? A simple command like "shoot" can make 1 less button and it could be possible to plug a mic to the wand through its port.

And the most important fact of all. I think Iwata or Miyamoto commented that a feature of Revolution could be very well receive by women... so let me think if talking is something that women like to do... mmmmmm just thinking.

If this is the ultimate Revolution secret? I don´t know but It could be. OR maybe this 3D display issue can be the ultimate one? I want to believe. That would be discussed in another moment.



Thanks to all that are reading this blog and making comments.

Possible Revolution memory architecture?

I have visited various Nintendo patents recently, most of them thanks to all our friends I have talked about in my introduction of the blog. But it seems they haven´t seen them in detail, haven´t noticed them, maybe they have but they haven´t talk about it or just I haven´t seen news where they talk about it.

It seems Nintendo is trying to put Gamecube diagrams and Revolution ones mixed up in the documentation, maybe to confuse the ones that are spying in them (like me). But this diagrams, if read closely can tell a lot of things.

In the most recent patent (and in other recent ones) we can see various diagrams of a "home console" that is not named Revolution, but we can assume safely that is a very high possibility. Maybe not a definite Revolution diagram, but a prototype one. This can be enough to have an idea where Revolution is going

The patent can be found here

In this picture

We can see a diagram that is possibly Revolution´s one. How I know it? For various facts but some of them are:

1 It doesn´t seem a Gamecube footprint, neither a Gameboy or DS one and is registered by Nintendo recently.

2 It supports Flash memory.

3 The patent mentions that the main processor could be a Power PC (IBM) so It could be a Gamecube or Revolution, but Gamecube is discarded as we will see later.

4 The general arquitecture seems as a home console and not a portable one ´cause we see it displays in a TV set.

There are other facts but we will continue

So what we see about the memory arquitecture? First that it uses two types of RAM. DRAM and SDRAM. What happened with the 1TSRAM Nintendo used before? I really don´t know but maybe they changed technology partner or this is a general idea of memory arquitecture and no detail about specific type of memory is given. We also see that there are 3 blocks of memory. The first one is the DRAM and is called "main memory". The second one is also DRAM but it has no name. And the third one is SDRAM with the name "audio memory" on it.

The first one, DRAM "main memory", will be used for general purpose of the multiple parts of the system. The SRAM for audio purpose but the most interesting one is middle memory. It is delimited with dots like describing as it could be removible. Maybe an expansion pack 2??? It could be possible. Matt and his team (http://revolution.ign.com) have said that sources close to Nintendo have unveiled the memory quantity they have in initial kits, and we all have known that is not 512 megas. It could be around 100 - 150 megs to keep it cheap. Memory is a costly feature in computers and with Nintendo philosophy that all games don´t need to be photorealistic they could be thinking in having an option of upgrading the memory in a future (type N64 expansion pack).

The patent don´t say anything about megs or about the mysterious second DRAM, curiously it describes all the blocks in the diagram but not the second ghostly DRAM.

N64 had an expansion pack, Gamecube had the posibility as we can see in the next diagram

The blue blocks (1 and 2) are the total memory Gamecube had (96 Mbits 'main' + 96 Mbits 'main' + 128 Mbits 'secondary' = 320 Mbits = 40 Mbytes) and the red one represent the possible memory upgrade Gamecube can have (256 Mbits = 32 Mbytes) more. For a total of 72 Mbytes. Why nintendo haven´t launch a Gamecube expansion pack? maybe cause it wasn´t necessary. Why? maybe the system was designed for been optimized for the original memory arquitecture and releasing an upgrade can´t make substancially better games, or just a time issue.

Maybe Nintendo is taking a similar aproach. Leaving the possibility for upgrading the memory for Revolution (if time and the game developers need it). Gamecube seems to be ok without an expansion pack, maybe Nintendo has made a clever move... Master and take Revolution hardware to the maximum could take time and resources, so when needed the possibility exists, maybe upgrade to the double of the original memory quantity, and meanwhile make a cheaper system. Maybe wasn´t the best answer, if you release an upgrade product you can divide the Revolution market and start putting restrictions for playing software, and this is one of the principles consoles try to avoid and diferenciate from their PC platform brothers.

I Remember IGN article about the exact amount of memory Revolution could have, but I don´t remember the exact megs... it could be between 90 and 120 megs. In paper It seems that isn´t enough for a next generation platform, but I have read various patents and Web columns that tell me that Revolution is going to be a very optimized platform and well balanced, without bottlenecks, so It could do more with the paper specs that we could thought. Can it compare with the 512 megs Xbox360 and PS3 have? maybe not but the system balance, absense of bottlenecks and optimization for various processes could make the difference look smaller in real world performance.

In the next diagram we can see another block representation of a better detail of the graphics pipeline from "Revolution"

The patent says that the red block is a "Text Memory" (TMEM), I suppose it functions like a cache for textures and texture operation data. The blue block is an "Embebbed frame buffer" (eFB). This could serve as a cache for the frames that were generated. The frames are not displayed in a gross manner... they receive treatments, like antialiasing, special efects, etc... so mantaining frames close to the pipeline is a smart way to avoid read times from the main memory. Remember that textures (high definition ones) use a lot of RAM when been stored in memory. Also the frames that the system generates uses a lot of RAM (frame buffer) and if this frames are going to have big resolutions (like Xbox360 and PS3) they can use a ridiculous amount of RAM (think 60 frames per second 720p! or 1080i! frames) Frame buffer in Revolution doesn´t need to be as big as Xbox360 or PS3, but it consumes a great amount of RAM. This "caches" seem like a good idea.

Concluding we don´t know the exact amount of RAM Revolution is going to have. But rest asure that the memory Revolution would have is going to be used in a very smart way. In paper it could have very little memory compared with competition, but in real world numbers the difference could seem smaller, how much? I don´t know but maybe one that it just don´t matter visually. And if you know that Revolution user interface is going to be something unique and fun to use and the difference from this interface and the competition is going to be really big......

Sorry for my bad spelling and grammar but it is a bit late and I need to work tomorrow.... today. See you soon.

Welcome

Hello everyone. My name is Yanko and I live in Mexico City. I am very interested in new types of technology and entretainment. I am following very close the console wars of next generation. I am a big Nintendo fan, but that doesn´t blind me about the other competitors. So why make a blog about Nintendo Revolution if there are a lot? I feel that is the most innovative console of the 3. Yes PS3 would have prettier graphics, and Xbox very good ones. But the Revolution has the potencial for changing substancially how we play games today or creating new types. I will try to make objective comments and analysis with the knowledge I have about computers and software and the information I find on the Web.

I am a 26 year old guy that is close to finish his studies in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. I am working in the Internet business programming in PHP, ASP, MySQL, etc. Also making standalone systems and a bit of financial analysis. I am not a person in the videogames industry. I am just a guy that finds information and wants to put his opinion online.

I appreciate works like the one Falafelkid (http://nintendo-revolution.blogspot.com) is making and also the people in http://revolutionreport.com are achieving. Also thanks to Matt and his team in IGN, joystiq.com guys and all the others that are trying to figuring out what this secret is all about.

I am not playing a lot now, cause I don´t have much time. Also that I think videogames in general lack innovation and new ideas. But I like to see the inner parts of hardware and software. How they operate. So you are not going to find the latest Nintendo Revolution news here, ´cause I don´t have much time to republish them from other places, or to get them personally, but I think you will be interested returning here once in a while to see some analisis from myself or interesting notes from other sources.

I apreciate that you are reading this and please feel free to make comments. Sorry for my bad english but I am trying to be cleanest enought to be readeable hahaha.

Enjoy