Monday, January 08, 2007

Updated in-depth Wii specs from anonymous Developer




Broadway CPU:

Broadway is Wii's CPU. Broadway functionality and specifications are as follows.

• Operating speed: 729 MHz

• Bus to main memory: 243 MHz, 64 bits (maximum bandwidth: 1.9 gigabytes/sec)

• 32-kilobyte 8-way set-associative L1 instruction cache

• 32-kilobyte 8-way set-associative L1 data cache (can set up 16-kilobyte data scratch pad)

• Superscalar microprocessor with six execution units (floating-point unit, branching unit,
system register unit, load/store unit, two integer units)

• DMA unit (15-entry DMA request queue) used by 16-kilobyte data scratch pad

• Write-gather buffer for writing graphics command lists to the graphics chip

• Onboard 256-kilobyte 2-way set-associative L2 integrated cache

• Two, 32-bit integer units (IU)

• One floating point unit (FPU) (supports single precision (32-bit) and double precision (64-bit))

• The FPU supports paired single floating point (FP/PS)

• The FPU supports paired single multiply add (ps_madd). Most FP/PS instructions can be
issued in each cycle and completed in three cycles.

• Fixed-point to floating-point conversion can be performed at the same time as FPU register load and store, with no loss in performance.


• The branch unit supports static branch prediction and dynamic branch prediction.

• When an instruction is stalled on data, the next instruction can be issued and executed. All instructions maintain program logic and will complete in the correct program order.

• Supports three L2 cache fetch modes: 32-Byte, 64-Byte, and 128-Byte.

• Supports these bus pipeline depth levels: level 2, level 3, and level 4.Reference Information: Broadway is upward compatible with Nintendo GameCube’s CPU (Gekko).

Hollywood GPU:

Hollywood is a system LSI composed of a GPU and internal main memory (MEM1). Hollywood is clocked at 243 MHz. Its internal memory consists of 3 megabytes of embedded graphics memory and 24 megabytes of high speed main memory. Hollywood includes the following:

• Graphics processing unit (with 3 megabytes of eDRAM)

• Audio DSP• I/O Bridge

• 24 megabytes of internal main memory

• Internal main memory operates at 486 MHz. Maximum bandwidth between Hollywood and internal main memory: 3.9 gigabytes per second

• Possible to locate a program here Reference Information: Hollywood is similar to Nintendo GameCube’s Flipper and Splash components.


External Main Memory (MEM2):


Wii uses 64 megabytes of GDDR3 (MEM2) as external main memory. Like internal main memory, MEM2 can be accessed directly from Broadway and the GPU at high speed and has a peak bandwidth of 4 gigabytes/sec. Programs can also be placed in MEM2. Reference Information: Nintendo GameCube ARAM is used as auxiliary memory for the DSP. The CPU and GPU did not have direct access to it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The site looks the same in Safari as in Firefox. I'm not sure why it says "Best viewed in Mozilla Firefox."

Those specs are pretty much exactly what we thought they were, aren't they?

Metaldave said...

The pictures I post do in fact look better in Mozilla Firefox, especially if you have a monitor with a native resolution of 1920 x 1200 like I do.

The specs MHz are the same as we've seen before, but it does go into much more detail than just MHz numbers. Not many are going to understand what the small details are talking about but it does further validate that these are the real specs of the Wii.

Anonymous said...

With the exception of slight font formatting and spacing changes between Firefox and IE, this page's images look exactly the same. >.>

It'll be interesting to see some professional comments on what some of these doohicky numbers mean in comparison to last/next generation consoles. Thanks for the numbers!

Anonymous said...

Oh, forgot to say, I'm also running 1920x1200 natively.

Metaldave said...

Well, the images on IE pale in comparison with Firefox on my computer. I don't know what to tell you about that...