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[Pasedo]

Hey tech gafs. I've been wondering this but If Nintendo is successful in bringing 3rd party support across to Switch what will stop another brand coming in with a similar tablet/physical controls concept and having these games also ported over to this device but perhaps charging significantly less for the console. I wonder this because I imagine that although the Switch Tegra chip has been slightly customised I can't see why a regular Tegra X1 or X2 can't handle the ported over games once the development tools/coding practices are in place. I mean if I was to be honest. If another brand came in with a similar device which can only play the 3rd party ported games but at say half to 2/3rds of thr Switch price than it would be very tempting to go for that instead...

 

[th3sicknness]

Hey tech gafs. I've been wondering this but If Nintendo is successful in bringing 3rd party support across to Switch what will stop another brand coming in with a similar tablet/physical controls concept and having these games also ported over to this device but perhaps charging significantly less for the console. I wonder this because I imagine that although the Switch Tegra chip has been slightly customised I can't see why a regular Tegra X1 or X2 can't handle the ported over games once the development tools/coding practices are in place. I mean if I was to be honest. If another brand came in with a similar device which can only play the 3rd party ported games but at say half to 2/3rds of thr Switch price than it would be very tempting to go for that instead...

One I highly doubt Nvidia is allowed to help another company develop a similar portable. I dont believe AMD has tegra type technology that can be squeezed in a portable for a competing device.Two there isnt any other company that has the same type of first party titles that sell like Nintendo.

Nvidia never had the games to fuel their shield line and their devices ultimately didnt succeed like they wanted . Nintendo has the development and the IP to make the concept work. I dont think anyone else is going to be able to do that. MSFT wont release a portable and Sony seems like they are done with portables after the Vita.

 

[Pasedo]

One I highly doubt Nvidia is allowed to help another company develop a similar portable. I dont believe AMD has tegra type technology that can be squeezed in a portable for a competing device.Two there isnt any other company that has the same type of first party titles that sell like Nintendo.

Nvidia never had the games to fuel their shield line and their devices ultimately didnt succeed like they wanted . Nintendo has the development and the IP to make the concept work. I dont think anyone else is going to be able to do that. MSFT wont release a portable and Sony seems like they are done with portables after the Vita.

So I was thinking about this as well. Nintendo definitely has the resources to make it work where Nvidia Shield failed. They will use their IP to build the market size. Once the market size is there than 3rd parties will bring their games across in masses. Through this other brands are keeping a close watch. I am just wondering if Nintendo has a way of protecting themselves from a cheaper copy cat product stealing the audience they built. I mean their IP is great but I don't think it'll be enough if these devices can play all 3rd party games. I'm sure like me there's a big audience out there more excited about the Switch being able to play the latest Assassin's Creed, Fighter or shooter on a true portable device. I have this feeling it's going to be another category all traditional gaming brands and even new entries will jump into, once the foundation has been created by Nintendo.

 

[lwilliams3]

Hey tech gafs. I've been wondering this but If Nintendo is successful in bringing 3rd party support across to Switch what will stop another brand coming in with a similar tablet/physical controls concept and having these games also ported over to this device but perhaps charging significantly less for the console. I wonder this because I imagine that although the Switch Tegra chip has been slightly customised I can't see why a regular Tegra X1 or X2 can't handle the ported over games once the development tools/coding practices are in place. I mean if I was to be honest. If another brand came in with a similar device which can only play the 3rd party ported games but at say half to 2/3rds of thr Switch price than it would be very tempting to go for that instead...

It is possible for a company to try, but they will have a lot to overcome. The device will need to have marketability, or else third party developers will not work on it. The Switch is also in mass production and Nintendo has some deal with NVIDIA, so other companies will likely have to pay more to use a similar chipset... if they can at all.

The situation is a funny thing to consider since we have been discussing the chances of third party developers working on the Switch despite it being weaker than the other consoles.
For your scenario, developers would have to port down even more to another device.

 

[MuchoMalo]

Can you show me in screenshots what improvements Splatoon and MK8 have over the WiiU versions ?. Mario Switch certainly looks nice but I don't think it looks like a generational leap over 3D World esp when you consider that 3D World had to account for a possible four playable characters on screen when designing it's environments.

From what Nintendo have shown so far (which is all we really have to go on outside of vague insider info), Switch certainly looks like a modest leap over WiiU in terms of specs which lines up with what Emily has said (falls short of the XB1 GPU, half XB1's memory) and also falls in line with the limitations a system which is designed to be played on the go would have due to heat and battery life.

Nobody's claiming that Switch is a full generational leap over Wii U in terms of raw power. In terms of power, it's more like a PS4 -> PS4 Pro jump, but a bit bigger. It's also much more modern.

 

[Makai]

For grouping purposes, will the Nintendo Switch be considered current gen or next gen?

 

[blu]

Both things are architectures used for PC, arent they? Or whats the difference in defining them as architectures?

And a VIA nano is another architecture used for PC. Re the example you're referring - one of them expands the possibilities before a PC, period. The other expands the possibilities before a certain class of portable PCs. Is the latter a good value for money - yes. Is it a good match for consoles - it surely was during the design frame of its respective host. Is it a supercharged PC architecture? Well, my ipad SoC is also a 'supercharged PC architecture' because it both outpowers and outlasts on a charge my ageing APU netbook for the exact same things I used to do on that netbook, so it must be effectively a 'supercharged PC architecture', right?

In reality there's a singe, simple, unloaded definition that a person who'd want to describe the APUs in the ps4/xbone would use, and it's 'a semi-custom APU design with console-specific enhancements'. It shares architectural traits with some PCs, and literally has nothing in common with others, aside from the ISA. Similarly to how wiiU shares architectural traits with an IBM Watson - shared ISA roots and eDRAM tech. We all facepalmed when we finally realised what tech Cafe shared with Watson. Yet somehow we keep regurgitating the 'supercharged PC architecture', which has the exact same value as the Watson analogy - it's hollow marketing speak.

 

[Pasedo]

It is possible for a company to try, but they will have a lot to overcome. The device will need to have marketability, or else third party developers will not work on it. The Switch is also in mass production and Nintendo has some deal with NVIDIA, so other companies will likely have to pay more to use a similar chipset... if they can at all.

The situation is a funny thing to consider since we have been discussing the chances of third party developers working on the Switch despite it being weaker than the other consoles.
For your scenario, developers would have to port down even more to another device.

It probably will all come down to how successful Switch is. Anywhere there is a market and money can be made the competitors will eventually come in and give it a crack. Sounds like Nintendo has thought of not making it easy for them with their partnership with Nvidia. I imagine they have also thought of proprietary porting tools and coding techniques that can't easily be replicated, to make it even easier for publishers to Port games over and to protect their market. End of the day I just hope they get proper 3rd party support. Wish it was available this Xmas. Would have been a perfect gift from Santa

 

[EDarkness]

For grouping purposes, will the Nintendo Switch be considered current gen or next gen?

I imagine it's part of the current gen much like the PS4 Pro and the eventual Scorpio.

 

[Man God]

I imagine it's part of the current gen much like the PS4 Pro and the eventual Scorpio.

Nope it's the first next generation system.

 

[EDarkness]

Nope it's the first next generation system.

I don't think so. There's no real shift this time and we're getting mid-generation upgrades as well. Sure, it's a new machine, but it could be considered and "upgrade" to the Wii U. I doubt the PS5 or next Xbox are coming anytime soon, so by the time the NS is ready to upgrade, the others should be ready as well.

 

[Man God]

It's a portable that's more powerful than Nintendo's actual current generation system.

 

[EDarkness]

It's a portable that's more powerful than Nintendo's actual current generation system.

Why do people keep calling this thing a portable? It could be a console as much as a portable as some people may never even use that functionality.

 

[Principate]

I don't think so. There's no real shift this time and we're getting mid-generation upgrades as well. Sure, it's a new machine, but it could be considered and "upgrade" to the Wii U. I doubt the PS5 or next Xbox are coming anytime soon, so by the time the NS is ready to upgrade, the others should be ready as well.

Nah it's next gen. This is a glorified handheld remember, so it's more a sucessfor to the 3DS than to ever was to the wii u which offered something else entirely.

Why do people keep calling this thing a portable? It could be a console as much as a portable as some people may never even use that functionality.

Because it is. The PSP had a tv-out do you consider that a home console? This is a portable with a dock

 

[KrawlMan]

Why do people keep calling this thing a portable? It could be a console as much as a portable as some people may never even use that functionality.

I could leave my laptop docked forever, connected to an external monitor. Does that magically change the product into a desktop?

It's functionally a desktop, sure. But it's still a laptop.

 

[Astral Dog]

Why do people keep calling this thing a portable? It could be a console as much as a portable as some people may never even use that functionality.

Because its designed so you can take it anywhere, and despite GAF distaste for the form factor i think its not too big and an overall improvment from the 3DS

 

[EDarkness]

Because it is. The PSP had a tv-out do you consider that a home console? This is a portable with a dock

From what we know it supposedly gets more powerful if it's docked, so wouldn't that be different than the PSP? So if it's connected to the dock and the TV, then it would be a normal console, right?

 

[Branduil]

It's a floor wax AND a dessert topping.

 

[GDGF]

It's a video game system.

 

[ShadowFox08]

Nobody's claiming that Switch is a full generational leap over Wii U in terms of raw power. In terms of power, it's more like a PS4 -> PS4 Pro jump, but a bit bigger. It's also much more modern.

That's like a modest 2.2X in power in GPU, which is like GC to Wii almost. That would be like .4 TFLOPS. *shudders*

Hopefully its more closer to Xbox One/S to Xbox Scorpio in power. Which is roughly up to 4 to 4.5x in power.

If the Wii U had the same it would be .176 X 4 = .704 or .792 TFLOPS(if its 4.5x). We don't know of course. And this doesn't count architectural differences between different GPUs from AMD to NVidia. One can dream though. sigh.

Anyway, at least from the initial trailer reveal, Splatoon and Mario(as well as the basketball game and skyrim) look impressive. MK8 looked just like the wii u version though, and hard to tell BotW. Again though, we don't know if those really truly displayed the graphics. Jan 12 can't some soon enough!

 

[Principate]

From what we know it supposedly gets more powerful if it's docked, so wouldn't that be different that the PSP? So if it's connected to the dock and the TV, then it would be a normal console, right?

Most rumours say it just runs at a higher clock rate, likely due to more active cooling and constant electricity. It's not that different to the psp situation but better ultilzes the fact it doesn't have to worry about battery life anymore and less worries about overheating. It's not somethng Sony couldn't have done with the psp if they wanted. I'd still consider a glorified because all of the processing hardware is in the device it just does the tv out in a more efficient way.

 

[Astral Dog]

From what we know it supposedly gets more powerful if it's docked, so wouldn't that be different than the PSP? So if it's connected to the dock and the TV, then it would be a normal console, right?

I still think how much more powerful, if any its not confirmed yet, regardless they will want to keep the experience between portable and dock "mode" similar

 

[lwilliams3]

That's like a modest 2.2X in power in GPU, which is like GC to Wii almost. That would be like .4 TFLOPS. *shudders*

Hopefully its more closer to Xbox One/S to Xbox Scorpio in power. Which is roughly up to 4 to 4.5x in power.

If the Wii U had the same it would be .176 X 4 = .704 or .792 TFLOPS(if its 4.5x). We don't know of course. And this doesn't count architectural differences between different GPUs from AMD to NVidia. One can dream though. sigh.

Anyway, at least from the initial trailer reveal, Splatoon and Mario(as well as the basketball game and skyrim) look impressive. MK8 looked just like the wii u version though, and hard to tell BotW. Again though, we don't know if those really truly displayed the graphics. Jan 12 can't some soon enough!

XB1 -> Scorpio would be a better comparison anyway due to the architectural differences and the significant increase in CPU power over the previous console.

Due to the Switch and Scorpio, the generation count will get more blurry.

 

[EDarkness]

Most rumours say it just runs at a higher clock rate, likely due to more active cooling and constant electricity. It's not that different to the psp situation but better ultilzes the fact it doesn't have to worry about battery life anymore and less worries about overheating. It's not somethng Sony couldn't have done with the psp if they wanted. I'd still consider a glorified because all of the processing hardware is in the device it just does the tv out in a more efficient way.

But that makes all the difference, I think. It divides up the experience in that when connected to the TV the experience is different vs playing in handheld mode. Those who want that "console" experience can get it and get a power leap over being solely a handheld. Of course, we don't know all of the details, but I think that blurs the line a bit so that it CAN be a console for those who what that without considering it a portable with a TV out.

I'll admit that I originally thought the concept of it being a handheld with a video out as the main one, but the more I thought about it and the details starting coming to light, I can see how it would be a console, too in normal "console" terms.

You're right, though. We don't know officially what the dock situation is right now, but if the rumors are true, then even being overclocked it's still a different experience than a straight handheld connected to the TV. So if you're playing on the go and it's 720p with some graphic effects turned out, then you connect it to the dock and it's now a 1080p game with more effects, that's something different.

 

[Clessidor]

I don't think so. There's no real shift this time and we're getting mid-generation upgrades as well. Sure, it's a new machine, but it could be considered and "upgrade" to the Wii U. I doubt the PS5 or next Xbox are coming anytime soon, so by the time the NS is ready to upgrade, the others should be ready as well.

Honestly, the way console generations are defined is sometimes a little bit confusing. Just think about the Dreamcast starting the sixth generation in 1998. Even though the N64 and PS1 were still working well and healthy. Companies don't have to start their new generation at the same time.

From Nintendos point of view the Switch is definitively a complete new generation. They are leaving the Wii U/3DS era behind and showed us a device which kinda redefines portable/home console gaming by using modern technology. You really can't call it just an upgrade of the Wii U.

 

[PdotMichael]

It does use a 256-bit bus. You need a 256-bit bus to hit 50GB/s. A 128-bit bus like the Tegra X1 is generally limited to 25GB/s with LPDDR4, with a theoretical max of 30GB/s.

Edit: I may have remembered incorrectly. It doesn't really make a difference either way. The point is that 50GB/s is what to expect if there's no eSRAM. You're still clinging on to this point way too much, and you're trying too hard to rule things out with no proof.

There are specs released for Parker any changes pushing for higher bandwidth isn't some trivial task but would mean a significant change of the design. Adding additional eSRAM would be even sillier and would only lead to compromises in other areas.

Based on the 4GB ram leak and Tegra X2 specs it's pretty obvious that Switch's ram setup is the weakest part of the chain for ports from the Xbox and Playstation.

 

[Thunder Monkey]

Basically my outlook is if the hardware is anymore capable than the WiiU, we should be insanely pleased. Anything over 600gflop would be complete and utter insanity. Given Nintendo's battery history.

So that should be the absolute top end of expectations.

Nintendo isn't going to release it for $399. And anything over that for dedicated gaming purposes is going to be a severe drain on battery life.

So my realistic expectation is around 300gflop and a maximum of 600.

Clocks will likely run significantly under stock parts, there might be more TMU's or other refinements. It might have a dedicated hardware like PS4Pro for upscaling to a 1080p screen.

If they somehow get it over that 600gflop mark with a large enough battery and a reasonable price, we'll know Nintendo isn't fucking around.

It will be a reasonably weak console, but an insanely powerful handheld.

 

[ggx2ac]

There are specs released for Parker any changes pushing for higher bandwidth isn't some trivial task but would mean a significant change of the design. Adding additional eSRAM would be even sillier and would only lead to compromises in other areas.

Based on the 4GB ram leak and Tegra X2 specs it's pretty obvious that Switch's ram setup is the weakest part of the chain for ports from the Xbox and Playstation.

What are you referring to? There is no Tegra X2 product.

 

[PdotMichael]

What are you referring to? There is no Tegra X2 product.

It's obvious what I'm referring to.

 

[ggx2ac]

It's obvious what I'm referring to.

An imaginary product?

 

[bomblord1]

There are specs released for Parker any changes pushing for higher bandwidth isn't some trivial task but would mean a significant change of the design. Adding additional eSRAM would be even sillier and would only lead to compromises in other areas.

Based on the 4GB ram leak and Tegra X2 specs it's pretty obvious that Switch's ram setup is the weakest part of the chain for ports from the Xbox and Playstation.

50GB/S to fill 4GB vs 68GB/S to fill out 8GB seems pretty favorable for the switch

 

[Donnie]

There are specs released for Parker any changes pushing for higher bandwidth isn't some trivial task but would mean a significant change of the design. Adding additional eSRAM would be even sillier and would only lead to compromises in other areas.

Based on the 4GB ram leak and Tegra X2 specs it's pretty obvious that Switch's ram setup is the weakest part of the chain for ports from the Xbox and Playstation.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

 

[RavageDark]

There are specs released for Parker any changes pushing for higher bandwidth isn't some trivial task but would mean a significant change of the design. Adding additional eSRAM would be even sillier and would only lead to compromises in other areas.

Based on the 4GB ram leak and Tegra X2 specs it's pretty obvious that Switch's ram setup is the weakest part of the chain for ports from the Xbox and Playstation.

First of all, said rumor was tweeted out by the same person (or people) who said that the Nintendo Switch wasn't going to be NVIDIA-based. So, that "leak" should be taken with a few grains of salt.

Second of all, there is no such thing as a Tegra X2 chip.

 

[PdotMichael]

An imaginary product?

Tegra Parker is an imaginary product.

Okay.

50GB/S to fill 4GB vs 68GB/S to fill out 8GB seems pretty favorable for the switch

That doesn't even make sense.

 

[Instro]

The Parker chip is meant for cars. I don't think it has much bearing in this discussion one way or another, other than it being Pascal based which presumably the Switch chip would also be.

 

[ggx2ac]

Tegra Parker is an imaginary product.

Okay.

Parker is not called the Tegra X2.

 

[PdotMichael]

The Parker chip is meant for cars. I don't think it has much bearing in this discussion one way or another, other than it being Pascal based which presumably the Switch chip would also be.

Parker is the new architecture - with a wide range of possible applications. The PX2 module with two Parker SoCs and water cooling is dedicated for automotive applications.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Another point would be that the Switch needs to provide 100% of its power at all times.

Peak performance and throtteling like on other mobile devices with so "impressive stats" can't be accepted on a dedicated gaming device.

I don't know about Vita, but it happened with PSP.

Nintendo is trying even harder than me to show that it seems lol

I feel like a minute of footage in a trailer centered around the basic hardware functionality and how people might use it isn't trying very hard to accomplish much.

So they did a full reverse from Wii U's pathetic CPU? Kewl

I was thinking, based on the tech speculation threads, it seems like Wii U -> Switch will see one of the historically smaller GPU jumps (GCN->Wii another notable exception), but one of the larger CPU jumps if it's really going from something sub-PS360 to something super-PS4One.

Honestly, the way console generations are defined is sometimes a little bit confusing. Just think about the Dreamcast starting the sixth generation in 1998. Even though the N64 and PS1 were still working well and healthy.

Yeah, very blurry line. Dreamcast released closer in time to the N64 than it did to the GameCube, and is all the more technically impressive for it.

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

So technically the switch should be able to run Marvel Vs Capcom 8 no?

 

[Schnozberry]

So technically the switch should be able to run Marvel Vs Capcom 8 no?

No reason it couldn't, provided Capcom has the desire.

 

[Hermii]

Old Tegra chip in the 350 something Gflops ballpark for 200 dollar.

Yo.

Its still miles better than Wii U, and it is a price sensitive gaming device using Tegra. So whats your point?

 

[lwilliams3]

Parker is the new architecture - with a wide range of possible applications. The PX2 module with two Parker SoCs and water cooling is dedicated for automotive applications.

"Parker" is a new SoC based off of the newer Pascal architecture. Nintendo's SoC for the Switch is labeled as a "custom Tegra processor" by Nvidia. It is not a TK1, TX1, or "Parker." It is another Tegra variant that may also be based off of the new Pascal architecture. Its specs and chip setup will likely be a bit different from what we would expect, and the memory system would be one of the attributes that Nintendo would pay close attention to.

 

[wwm0nkey]

So technically the switch should be able to run Marvel Vs Capcom 8 no?

Don't see a reason why not, its up to Capcom honestly.

 

[lwilliams3]

So technically the switch should be able to run Marvel Vs Capcom 8 no?

UE4 apparently runs very well on Nvidia's chips, and that engine takes good advantage of fp16. I doubt there would be any major technical issues for the game to be effectively ported to the Switch.

 

[ggx2ac]

"Parker" is a new SoC based off of the newer Pascal architecture. Nintendo's SoC for the Switch is labeled as a "custom Tegra processor" by Nvidia. It is not a TK1, TX1, or "Parker." It is another Tegra variant that may also be based off of the new Pascal architecture. Its specs and chip setup will likely be a bit different from what we would expect, and the memory system would be one of the attributes that Nintendo would pay close attention to.

It's probably too hard for some people to understand that the Switch SoC is a custom design built for a gaming system as opposed to pulling off the shelf parts and sticking it inside a tablet.

Some people think it will be poor as a portable because it will throttle and lower performance to conserve battery power. It's weird that, we know that Nintendo would be setting constraints to get the CPU, GPU, RAM to run at a certain Wattage so that they can get a decent battery to work with.

Someone uttered in the same sentence that the Switch is as powerful as a Wii U and is only getting a custom design to be power efficient. That's silly, we know the Tegra X1 is very capable compared to the Wii U and the Switch having a custom SoC correlates with NateDrake mentioning how it's going to have Pascal Architecture which correlates to having a 16nm GPU and most likely CPU. What I'm getting at is, there are two main factors to make a chip have low power consumption, that is design, and die size.

Anyway, I don't know what the fuck happened the last couple of pages. Most people in here have reasonable expectations with what you can get out of what technology with all the info we have so far.

That's why assuming the Switch SoC has a 16nm GPU and looking at the performance of Tegra X1 and Parker. It's not unreasonable to at least see as minimum the Switch being twice as strong as a Wii U in FLOPS.

So 352 GFLOPS as a minimum in portable mode, that is less than Tegra X1 but with 16nm compared to 20nm and a new design, it would easily be more power efficient compared to a Tegra X1 down clocked at the same performance.

But apparently those minimum expectations are too insane for Nintendo to have including having a 128-bit bus to have LPDDR4 RAM to give 50GB/S bandwidth.

Nintendo are apparently still in arrogant mode, they got Nvidia to make a Turbo Vita, 40 GFLOPS here we go!

 

[MDave]

This is worth a read to see all the tricks Nvidia use for making the most of memory bandwidth, it's something I wouldn't worry about for Switch.

As a reminder, delta color compression is a per-buffer/per-frame compression method that breaks down a frame into tiles, and then looks at the differences between neighboring pixels – their deltas. By utilizing a large pattern library, NVIDIA is able to try different patterns to describe these deltas in as few pixels as possible, ultimately conserving bandwidth throughout the GPU, not only reducing DRAM bandwidth needs, but also L2 bandwidth needs and texture unit bandwidth needs (in the case of reading back a compressed render target).

... this allows NVIDIA to utilize smaller memory buses, keeping down the die size and power costs of their GPUs, making PCB costs cheaper, and of course boosting profit margins at the same time.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10325/the-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1080-and-1070-founders-edition-review/8

 

[test_account]

A quantum leap would be an event so insignificant that it barely registers as existing.

I dont think it matters that we cant see it. Its the type of change that happends that the methaphor is referring to. I do wonder the origin of the metaphor though, why someone chose that exact phrase to describe a larger change =)

And a VIA nano is another architecture used for PC. Re the example you're referring - one of them expands the possibilities before a PC, period. The other expands the possibilities before a certain class of portable PCs. Is the latter a good value for money - yes. Is it a good match for consoles - it surely was during the design frame of its respective host. Is it a supercharged PC architecture? Well, my ipad SoC is also a 'supercharged PC architecture' because it both outpowers and outlasts on a charge my ageing APU netbook for the exact same things I used to do on that netbook, so it must be effectively a 'supercharged PC architecture', right?

In reality there's a singe, simple, unloaded definition that a person who'd want to describe the APUs in the ps4/xbone would use, and it's 'a semi-custom APU design with console-specific enhancements'. It shares architectural traits with some PCs, and literally has nothing in common with others, aside from the ISA. Similarly to how wiiU shares architectural traits with an IBM Watson - shared ISA roots and eDRAM tech. We all facepalmed when we finally realised what tech Cafe shared with Watson. Yet somehow we keep regurgitating the 'supercharged PC architecture', which has the exact same value as the Watson analogy - it's hollow marketing speak.

Yeah, it somewhat PR speak (wouldnt call it hollow though since it has some meaning), i was just wondering since you said that one was a supercharged APU and the other is a supercharged PC architecture, using the word "supercharged" for both things, but both things are architectures, and the APU used in PS4 is also used for laptops, being x86 as well.

If the iPad used a more common APU that latop also uses, and is also based on x86, i think that would be fair to say. Otherwise i dont think it has much in common with a PC in that sense.

Is it being regurgitated by the way? Personally i dont think i've seen any mention of it during the last 2 years or so, but i'm not reading these tech threads that much, so its fully possible that i've missed it.

 

[Nostremitus]

I dont think it matters that we cant see it. Its the type of change that happends that the methaphor is referring to. I do wonder the origin of the metaphor though, why someone chose that exact phrase to describe a larger change =)



Yeah, it somewhat PR speak (wouldnt call it hollow though since it has some meaning), i was just wondering since you said that one was a supercharged APU and the other is a supercharged PC architecture, using the word "supercharged" for both things, but both things are architectures, and the APU used in PS4 is also used for laptops, being x86 as well.

If the iPad used a more common APU that latop also uses, and is also based on x86, i think that would be fair to say. Otherwise i dont think it has much in common with a PC.

Is it being regurgitated by the way? Personally i dont think i've seen any mention of it during the last 2 years or so, but i'm not reading these tech threads that much, so its fully possible that i've missed it.

It was a play on words in a TV show that people didn't know what it meant so they misused it. Unless it was used before the Quantum Leap TV Show...

 

[test_account]

It was a play on words in a TV show that people didn't know what it meant so they misused it. Unless it was used before the Quantum Leap TV Show...

I did some searching and this site seems to give some information about it:

http://www.cjr.org/language_corner/language_corner_080514.php

When it was used in 1956, maybe it was referring to the meaning of quanta, a larger amount. Quantum in sience means really small though, true that, so it might sound strange.

 

[Nostremitus]

I did some searching and this site seems to give some information about it:

http://www.cjr.org/language_corner/language_corner_080514.php

When it was used in 1956, maybe it was referring to the meaning of quanta, a larger amount. Quantum in sience means really small though, true that, so it might sound strange.

Quanta never meant larger amount, the link you just posted even says that. It gives the definition of quanta and not once does it say that it means a larger amount. The paper written in 1956 misused the term because the writer didn't understand what the phrase meant.