IBM Begins Shipments of Microprocessors for Wii Game Console

by Anton Shilov
09/08/2006 | 01:06 PM

International Business Machines announced on Friday that it had begun shipments of code-named Broadway processor for Nintendo Wii game console. The announcement indicates that production of the game console began only recently and the launch should not be expected early.

“The first chips are in our possession. Today’s milestone marks the final stage of our drive to reach both core and nontraditional gamers with an inviting, inclusive and remarkable gaming experience,” said Genyo Takeda, senior managing director/general manager, integrated research and development division, Nintendo.

Earlier this year, IBM and Nintendo signed a multi-year microchip production agreement to support the upcoming launch of Nintendo’s eagerly anticipated Wii video game console. Under the terms of the agreement, IBM will produce millions of fully tested, Power Architecture-based chips featuring IBM silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology made using 90nm fabrication process. The chip is being produced at IBM’s 300mm semiconductor development and manufacturing facility in East Fishkill, N.Y. 

Nintendo Wii console will feature IBM’s custom PowerPC architecture based microprocessor named Broadway clocked at 729MHz and code-named Hollywood chip with built-in graphics core, DSP and I/O features from ATI that will operate at 243MHz, earlier reports suggested. Nintendo revolution will use 91MB of memory in total: 23MB of “main” 1T-SRAM, 64MB of “external” 1T-SRAM and 3MB texture buffer on the GPU. Nintendo’s Wii does not feature a hard disk drive, instead, it boasts with 512MB of flash memory, but the console will also have a card reader, which will allow installing more memory.