IBM Shipped 6 Million Chips for Nintendo Wii

IBM today confirmed they had started shipping microchips of Nintendo's Wii for their New York fab plant, about three weeks ago. Both parties involved remain silent when it comes to revealing further details about chip production, although Nintendo confirmed a shipment of "6 million systems to retailers around the world between its launch in the fourth quarter of 2006 and the end of its fiscal year on March 31, 2007." The next generation console is shrouded in secrecy, with Wii's release date scheduled for later this year, yet still to be announced. Just how many "Broadway" chips will there be able to manufacture until day one? We expect Nintendo might finally be ready to talk about the release schedule during their event in New York City next week.

"We have been shipping well within this quarter (July)," said Ron Martino, director of IBM Technology Collaboration Solutions. Concerning processor speed, he made a direct link to the companies' past collaboration on the GameCube: "Compared to the Gekko in the GameCube, it's 20 percent more power efficient. It also performs significantly better. The key point is that it is Power Architecture-based and custom-made and optimized for Nintendo".

This time around, IBM and Nintendo signed a deal for several years, where the manufacturer is bound to produce millions of the Power Architecture-based chips featuring IBM Silicon on Insulator technology at 90 nanometers. Nintendo has some breathing space now since they appear to have dodged the production problems that now plague Sony's PS3. The Broadway chips being produced at IBM's 300mm semiconductor development and manufacturing facility in East Fishkill, New York, ironically share the same facility involved in Cell's chip production for the Playstation 3.