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Iwata Asks: Wii U - full breakdown (images, tech, design and much more)
- Shiota feels like he worked on a console and handheld at the same time, due to the Wii U and its GamePad
- Kitano worked on casing and thermal design, connectors and cables
- Akagi was in charge of testing programs/softwate
- Wii U designs kicked off with the change to HD
- Nintendo worked on offering a good price while achieving solid performance from Wii U
- Nintendo is always focused on low power consumption mixed with high performance and efficiency
- first time Nintendo is using a multi-core CPU
- data processed can now be much more efficient with low power consumption
- Wii U also uses a multi chip module, which is where the multi-core CPU and GPU are built into a single component
- GPU contains large on-chip memory
- chips were made at different companies, which made it hard to narrow down the solution to an issue when one arose
- Renesas, IBM and AMD all helped to figure out any problems that came up
- the companies had to 'prove their innocence' when it came to ironing out issues
- the Wii U substrate contains the 'console's heart'
- the setup seen above reduces latency and increases speed
- having the Wii U casing take up little space was a goal from the start
- Nintendo referred to the role of the small casing as a 'stagehand', since they wanted the console to play its important role from behind the scenes
- Wii U has one heat source
- Wii U has about three times as much heat as the Wii
- this lead to trying bigger fans, raising fan revolutions, performing heat tests and optimizing air hole placement
- a lot of work when into the vent fan, making it thinner, slanted and more efficient
- the heat test number went over 2,000, with one test taking an hour
- noise from the fan is also tested
- the team worked to figure out the optimal amount of revolutions for heat dissipation while keeping the fan from being too loud
- heat sink is over the MCM, with the fan behind it
- heat must be dissipated while securing a certain amount of airways to keep things efficient
- the entire setup allows air to flow through efficiently to keep heat down
- main intake is on the side
- openings at the top and bottom as well
- the heat sink shield suppresses electric waves from the board
- mechanical engineering team started design work in April of 2009
- square-type layouts like the GameCube were considered
- Wii U can be stood vertically in a stand or laid on its side
- Akagi had to take all this into consideration for testing
- this included a lot of tests, which takes time and costs money
- early testing took a lot of time
- as things moved on, testing costs were cut down, as was time
- more tests were focused on typical problem areas while less tests were used in 'safer' areas
- hundreds of defects were analyzed and sorted out
- sometimes the Wii U would be left powered on the entire day, only to show a defect at the end of that day
- these were called aging tests
- these tests are important to simulate the breakdown of a system once in a customer's hands
- the devs feel that IBM, AMD, Renesas and Nintendo teamed together to form 'Team Nintendo' during development
- a lot of CPU/GPU designers were working with Nintendo since the Wii
- this helped to make the semiconductor smaller, and power consumption fell
- Sync button is on the outside
- USB connectors are in the front as well
- cover now goes in instead of flipping out
- it was important to Nintendo to include an HDMI cable
- you can use the cable that came with the Wii as well
- Nintendo focuses on consistent performance when working on hardware, rather than the top specs it can pump out
- Nintendo is proud that the Wii U doesn't 'leech' off of the TV like previous consoles, meaning that you can take the GamePad and play off TV
- Nintendo feels the touch screen will help break down barriers for those that don't usually play games
- they want consumers to use the Wii U to hop online and look up answers to questions that come up in conversations with friends and family
- playing video games is the centerpiece of the hardware
- creating Wii U with all it has and offering it at this price meant that a lot of people had to work 'awfully hard'
- send images to the Wii U GamePad from Wii U without latency
Link
- Kitano worked on casing and thermal design, connectors and cables
- Akagi was in charge of testing programs/softwate
- Wii U designs kicked off with the change to HD
- Nintendo worked on offering a good price while achieving solid performance from Wii U
- Nintendo is always focused on low power consumption mixed with high performance and efficiency
- first time Nintendo is using a multi-core CPU
- data processed can now be much more efficient with low power consumption
- Wii U also uses a multi chip module, which is where the multi-core CPU and GPU are built into a single component
- GPU contains large on-chip memory
- chips were made at different companies, which made it hard to narrow down the solution to an issue when one arose
- Renesas, IBM and AMD all helped to figure out any problems that came up
- the companies had to 'prove their innocence' when it came to ironing out issues
- the Wii U substrate contains the 'console's heart'
- the setup seen above reduces latency and increases speed
- having the Wii U casing take up little space was a goal from the start
- Nintendo referred to the role of the small casing as a 'stagehand', since they wanted the console to play its important role from behind the scenes
- Wii U has one heat source
- Wii U has about three times as much heat as the Wii
- this lead to trying bigger fans, raising fan revolutions, performing heat tests and optimizing air hole placement
- a lot of work when into the vent fan, making it thinner, slanted and more efficient
- the heat test number went over 2,000, with one test taking an hour
- noise from the fan is also tested
- the team worked to figure out the optimal amount of revolutions for heat dissipation while keeping the fan from being too loud
- heat sink is over the MCM, with the fan behind it
- heat must be dissipated while securing a certain amount of airways to keep things efficient
- the entire setup allows air to flow through efficiently to keep heat down
- main intake is on the side
- openings at the top and bottom as well
- the heat sink shield suppresses electric waves from the board
- mechanical engineering team started design work in April of 2009
- square-type layouts like the GameCube were considered
- Wii U can be stood vertically in a stand or laid on its side
- Akagi had to take all this into consideration for testing
- this included a lot of tests, which takes time and costs money
- early testing took a lot of time
- as things moved on, testing costs were cut down, as was time
- more tests were focused on typical problem areas while less tests were used in 'safer' areas
- hundreds of defects were analyzed and sorted out
- sometimes the Wii U would be left powered on the entire day, only to show a defect at the end of that day
- these were called aging tests
- these tests are important to simulate the breakdown of a system once in a customer's hands
- the devs feel that IBM, AMD, Renesas and Nintendo teamed together to form 'Team Nintendo' during development
- a lot of CPU/GPU designers were working with Nintendo since the Wii
- this helped to make the semiconductor smaller, and power consumption fell
- Sync button is on the outside
- USB connectors are in the front as well
- cover now goes in instead of flipping out
- it was important to Nintendo to include an HDMI cable
- you can use the cable that came with the Wii as well
- Nintendo focuses on consistent performance when working on hardware, rather than the top specs it can pump out
- Nintendo is proud that the Wii U doesn't 'leech' off of the TV like previous consoles, meaning that you can take the GamePad and play off TV
- Nintendo feels the touch screen will help break down barriers for those that don't usually play games
- they want consumers to use the Wii U to hop online and look up answers to questions that come up in conversations with friends and family
- playing video games is the centerpiece of the hardware
- creating Wii U with all it has and offering it at this price meant that a lot of people had to work 'awfully hard'
- send images to the Wii U GamePad from Wii U without latency
Link