Lasse Penttinen
17 Nov 2003 8:31
Recently Microsoft announced that it will drop the Intel-based concept of the Xbox and use an IBM CPU in the Xbox 2. The Sony PS3 will also feature an IBM processor. Nintendo’s GameCube already is equipped with IBM, an Nintendo will continue to do so in the next generation console as well.
But things just get more interesting! Nintendo has signed the well known 3D graphics card developer ATI as the GPU provider for their up coming console. Since Xbox and the next Nintendo are both based on IBM+ATI, it raises a lot of questions.
Nintendo is working on future successors to the GameCube and the GameBoy Advance. It is expected to announce the former next May at the E3 show. Curiously, with GameCube development partners IBM and ATI now confirmed as Xbox 2 developers, speculation is mounting that the new Nintendo and Xbox 2 may be one and the same thing, with the two firms essentially offering two, individual products both derived from a common platform.Source: The Register
Indeed, ATI has already been named by Nintendo as its future graphics partner - despite being signed by Microsoft, nominally Nintendo's rival. It's hard to imagine to competitors being happy to share one key component supplier, let alone two, such is the risk that commercially sensitive information might be exposed to a rival. No, the only way they would happily allow this situation to exist is if they are working on the same console platform.