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.