that and they basically have to double this h/w let alone fit it into the thermal footprint, of a tablet sized controller. I doubt very highly that a 6670 can do the latter.
Huh? The console itself is a little bigger than the Wii (as shown currently), the main hardware is not in the tablet. The dimensions listed below are 172 x 45 x 266mm www.pocket-lint.com/news/40405/wii-u-vs-nintendo-wii A Mac Mini is smaller at 190 x 36 x 190mm yet can fit a dual core i7 and 6630m. Admittedly that hardware only accounts for 45w, but paired with 4GB of DDR3 (LP SO-DIMM, but still) and a 2.5" HDD, the fact that the enclosure is 35% smaller and in particular that much thinner really shows how something around 60-90w wouldn't be out of reach.
Gojira! Will the external power adapter fit inside a Japanese home? If you stack a few, you can practice Dim Mak. But brick don't hit back! My expectation is a power adapter similar to a Blu-ray player (or netbook/nettop or GameCube/Wii): 12V 3-4A (36-48W). The CPU/GPU/RAM may be ~60% of that.
If Nintendo really want to target 30-50w max then they should expect mobile devices using PowerVR Rogue to be comparable graphically with WiiU next year. A tablet controller won't be much of a gimmick when you can have... an actual tablet which is portable, can still connect to your TV AND be use for other things besides gaming. Albeit at a higher price, but people seem pretty willing to pay a hell of a lot more for something when it's not seen solely as a gaming device.
Here's another rumor that states that the Wii U will be running DX 11 effects -- well, Open GL 4.0 anyway. http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Wii-U-Confirmed-Receive-DirectX-11-Racer-Project-CARS-41448.html Apparently screen-shots from a new DX 11 game called Project Cars have been circulating the internet. Everyone at that site has been drooling over them and then a reader noticed a Nintendo logo on one of the high res cars. And its a well known fact that a developer will not put a "Nintendo" logo on a PC game. And it should be noted that the 360 can only pull off DX 9 level effects. After the site checked up on it, they found out that Project Cars is indeed headed toward the Wii U.
DirectX 11 level capability certainly isn't far-fetched for the Wii U, as mobile GPUs like the PowerVR Series 6 and the ARM Mali-T658 are supposed to be DX 11 capable.
Wii U will surely have a DX10/DX11-class graphics architecture. The two unknowns are the level of performance and the degree of customization. Performance could be anywhere from 200 to 1000 GFLOPS. A 200 GFLOPS GPU would be 160 stream processors at 600-650 MHz, in the same league as Xbox 360, a significant upgrade from today's overclocked GameCube Wii. Customization will probably at least include eDRAM.
The CPU is three GameCube CPUs in a jam sandwich. http://www.vgleaks.com/world-exclusive-wii-u-final-specs/
Seriously, three Gamecube CPUs duct taped together, and a 2006-2008 era budget GPU, in 2012? My only reaction to that is... Although I figured as much knowing Nintendo.
Using a CPU from 2001 in 2012 is worse. This thing won't be running any modern games. It's basically going to be a Wii with an HDMI port.
Well if it isn't sub £150 then it will be a complete waste of money if those specs are to be believed. The only reason I went to £150 was because of the tablet part which I assume is quite expensive to produce, the rest of it is bargain bin.
I can't see it happening, I think both M$ and Sony will want to keep costs down this time and large SSDs won't allow that. They need more space than ever with digital downloads becoming more and more prominent even in the console market and large SSDs will push the price up too high. Sony lost a lot of money and ground on the competition last time by having a very expensive console, I don't think they will want to make that mistake again, especially in times of austerity.
If the info regarding external USB drive support is correct, then you can just buy your own external SSD.
It sounds like they've built a $150 console and a $75 controller and are charging $350 for it. If it costs more than £200 in the UK I can see it bombing after the christmas rush. It was going to be a day one purchase for me but if it's over £200 I'll wait for the inevitable 3DS style price drop or for the AAA games to come out.