Tiny but mighty

The Wii is powered by IBM's custom "Broadway" CPU along with ATI's "Hollywood" GPU, but what of the inevitable Wii successor – what silicon army might power its architecture? MCV has suggested it could be IBM's mighty Cell processor.

Chief technical officer of IBM's systems and technology group Jai Menon has said:

I think you'll see [Cell] integrated into our future Power road map. That's the way to think about it as opposed to a separate line – it'll just get integrated into the next line of things that we do. We’re working with all of the game folks to provide our capabilities into those next-generation machines.

There's no firm link between the Wii successor and the Cell so this most definitely falls under the "rumour and speculation" part of the gaming news spectrum, IBM has committed to the Cell processor and its involvement in the development of future consoles. We know that Nintendo wants the Wii 2 to be surprising – the inclusion of a chip capable of powering a PlayStation 3 would certainly fit the bill.

Remember, though: rumour.

[source mcvuk.com]