Rumor: Next-gen Nintendo DS to get graphics boost from nVidia?
It looks like Nintendo is readying the next generation of DS with the help of nVidia. According to reports from Bright Side of News, the company has already started to work on the next iteration of the handheld gaming console that will debut sometime next year.
It looks like Nintendo is readying the next generation of DS with the help of nVidia. According to reports from Bright Side of News, the company has already started to work on the next iteration of the handheld gaming console that will debut sometime next year.
According to our confidential sources, Nintendo is going to use Tegra System-on-Chip processor for the successor of DS/DSi handheld console. Unlike the current design, nVidia offered a single-chip proposal to Nintendo, a company famous for keeping the hardware platform absolutely simple.
Given the fact that Nintendo DS hardware is based upon 16-bit and 32-bit ARM cores, it looks like Next-Gen DS could be backwards compatible with the DS application library. According to our sources, all of the apps that came for old DS could run on a single ARM11 core, yet alone the next-gen CorTex-A9-based Tegra, leaving graphics subsystem to do “something smarter”.
Currently, we have no information what exact chip is being used [just that nVidia won the contract], but with the debut set for February 2010, the second generation of Tegra chips could make an excellent base [to be launched at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona].
If the rumors are true, this could be another big boost for Nintendo.
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