Nintendo and IBM

(Recent)

IBM Corp. and Nintendo Inc. announced a $1 billion agreement for Nintendo to build its next-generation video game system using IBM's chip technology.

Under the deal, International Business Machines will make a custom computer chip for the new Nintendo game machine, to be released in the fall of 2000. The Nintendo PowerPC chip will permit the game machine to display almost lifelike three-dimensional images.

The combination of IBM and Nintendo follows similar linkups by fellow Japanese giants Sony Corp. -- with Toshiba Corp. -- and Sega Enterprises Ltd. -- with Microsoft Corp. -- as the companies vie for a piece of the $6 billion game market.

The next generation of game machines is expected to take on a wide variety of computing tasks, including Internet linkups, music and video entertainment.

Sega Enterprises will release its next-generation Dreamcast, in the United States in September, while Sony is expected to release its PlayStation II in Japan this year and in the United States by Christmas 2000.

Sony currently accounts for about 60 percent of the U.S. market for video game machines with its PlayStation system, while Nintendo holds more than 30 percent; Sega has less than 5 percent.
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(Old)

Rumors Indicate That Nintendo and IBM Will Announce a $1 Billion Deal to Use IBM Chip Technology in Nintendo's Next Game Machine

Nintendo and IBM Corp. are expected today to announce a dramatic new alliance that promises to shake the world of gaming.

Sources indicate that IBM PowerPC technology will fuel the N2000 game system, allowing the new Nintendo machine to display almost lifelike images, while also playing music and videos. Of course, the latter capabilities point to DVD as the storage medium, but this is not confirmed.

With IBM delivering the core chip technology, there is also speculation that the Nintendo machine will be Internet capable.

The 400 MHz IBM chip will be married to a high-performance graphics chip being designed by Wei Yen. Mr. Yen. heads the Silicon Valley graphics firm called ArtX, which is composed of many former Silicon Graphics employees.

Sources also indicate that the N2000 machine will indeed be available in the Fall of year 2000.

With Sega's impressive Dreamcast launching this September, and Sony's even more impressive PSX2 waiting in the wings, the onus has been on Nintendo to strike back with flourish. And indeed, the partnership with IBM is a high profile alliance.

IBM will likely deliver the cutting edge technological machine Nintendo needs to compete against Sega and Sony. In fact, since the specs of Dreamcast and PSX2 are so widely known, you can count on the Big N to create a system equally, if not more, powerful than its competition.

Source: ANTagonist

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