Nintendo Co will use a radical embedded static RAM (SRAM) design intended to improve graphics performance in its new ‘Dolphin’ games console. The console will use embedded SRAM, licensed from MoSys, in its ArtX Inc-designed graphics accelerator – a technique that should increase bandwidth and speed up image rendering times. NEC Corp will make the ArtX chip on a 0.18 micron process design rule. Nintendo won’t reveal how much SRAM will be embedded in the processor but according to the EE Times, the on-chip memory could be as much as 128Mb.
As manufacturers race for faster and more film-like on-screen images, the graphics chip and console market is becoming a proving ground for high bandwidth memory technologies. Sony Corp, Nvidia Corp and PixelFusion Ltd have all said that they will be adopting Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) technology for new graphics platforms. Sega Corp is already using 32Mb of RDRAM as the main memory in its console, which is due to launched in the US on Thursday.
