Nintendo has been pretty tight-lipped regarding the CPU speeds of its new console, but hacker Hector Martin, aka marcan42 , may have uncovered some highly sought after details. He’s been posting little tidbits via his Twitter account. Here are some of the more interesting bits regarding the Wii U’s CPU:
· Wii U codenames worth knowing: system Cafe, CPU Espresso, GPU/SoC/etc. Latte, ARM secure processor Starbuck (we made that one up).
· 1.243125GHz, exactly. 3 PowerPC 750 type cores (similar to Wii’s Broadway, but more cache).
· GPU core at 549.999755MHz.
· We’re calling the WiiU security processor the Starbuck (vs. Starlet on Wii). And it seems to be about equally vulnerable, too
· Sorry, I’d rather not talk about how I got that yet. It doesn’t involve leaks, it involves Wii U hacks 😉
Obviously, he’s obtained this information in a manner that’s not entirely, you know, legal, but it’s nice to have the info out in public to help understand why certain Wii U ports aren’t performing up to par. We already knew that the Wii U’s GPU is powerful, but it looks like developers aren’t necessarily taking advantage of that.
Martin also went on to say that while the WII U’s CPU isn’t the bees knees, “don’t compare it clock per clock with a 360 and claim it’s much worse. It isn’t.” This is what we expected from the Wii U: a slightly more powerful system with the emphasis on slightly . It’ll be interesting to see if the graphics improve during the console’s lifespan.