Src: http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/06/21/pica200_3ds_graphics_core/ The technology behind Nintendo's new 3DS has been somewhat of a mystery even as the press got hands-on time with the system at E3. Today, one piece of the puzzle was cleared up. Japanese graphics processor developer Digital Media Professional (DMP) announced today that Nintendo has adopted its "PICA200" 3D graphics core for the system. According to DMP, PICA200 is a 3D graphics core that's designed for mobile phones, amusement machines, game consoles and digital appliances. The chip makes use of DMP's proprietary "Maestro Technology," which implements complex shader functionality in hardware, allowing for high quality graphics at the low power dissipation required of portable devices. Commenting on the announcement today, DMP CEO Tatsuo Yamamoto said, "Our company has the high goal of realizing such high quality graphic expression as game consoles and glass-free 3D while keeping power dissipation low. We are pleased that our long-developed Maestro Technology has been of assistance." You can read more about PICA200 at the DMP official site. A PDF file about the product from DMP follows: http://www.dmprof.com/release/leaflet_PICA200_en.pdf Interesting thing from the leaflet. It seems to support Vertex Programs (vert shader) but doesn't list any pixel shaders. It seems maybe pixel shader effects (like normal maps, shelf shadowing, etc) are a sort of a custom extension that is built with an external tool. If so this could partly explain why so many tech demos had effects thrown on everything (it probably was simple to do). -edit- So this thing is probably mid of a gcn with a few extensions thrown in to do what gcn/wii has problems doing (wii/gcn can do them but they're more complicated to do or more costly).
Interesting, though kinda odd that they would choose a GPU produced by such an obscure company. I'd never heard of them, though that's not saying much.
PICA200 was announced and released in 2006. I've looked at roadmaps the company has on their site, and there is a "PICA Extreme" (as an evolution of the PICA200) scheduled around what is now the 3DS launch date. Could be just a coincidence, but I find it kinda hard to believe Nintendo would just pick up and use a 4-5 year old piece of tech with no modifications.
Specs aside, we need more quality games and less shovelware. What use is a top notch GPU if it is only used for horse riding games and bad movie adaptions?
Nintendo: "Hi little no name company, we're Nintendo and we'd like to buy a FUCKTON of your chips. Oh, and we want em cheap." LNNC: "Um, YES!" -hl718
Still no word though I guess on the CPU, RAM, clock speeds of CPU/GPU? I wonder if Kid Icarus will look better by launch as I thought its graphics didn't look as good as some of the screenshots of 3rd party games like the Metal Gear and Resident Evil ones.
I think it's a safe guess that the CPU is probably an ARM processor. Which gen is up in the air but at min has to properly support floats (DS arm9 didn't) and maybe a vector unit. Since we know the GPU is kind of low end it's also probably safe to not consider any high end Arm units like the A9 (and maybe A8). I wonder if it will even be a launch title. It might come out 6+ months later. It didn't look as good as the demo and looked on par for a PSP game.
I m baffled at how Kid Icarus is turning into Sin and Punishment. I didn't wait 25 years not to get a platformer nintendo, get your shit together.
