Oh right yes, you do not seem to really need a actual hardware developer kit to develop switch games and I don’t see that changing for the switch 2.
The graphics API for it is based on windows and allows for game development even without using a physical developer kit.
The earliest dates for the
Graphics API dubbed NVN2 is circa late 2019. When the
overall project started on the other hand seems to be about summer 2019, and taking full swing mid-summer (August) of that year.
Nvidia is the one designing and creating the chip within Nintendo’s specifications and requirements and what they are paying for. They rely on a super computer they created that does the work.
Here and
here and I guess
here? If you want to read similar articles about it that is.
You may be wondering, how do we know that this is actually for Nintendo?
In the data breach that happened this year, February/March 2022, it had detailed information on a chip and the graphics API for it. Not only that it also had information about other nvidia products that came to be this year, such as NVidia’s ORIN series of automotive focused System-on-Chips, NVidia’s Desktop next-generation GPUs of the RTX 4000 series dubbed as the Ada Lovelace Architecture. It also had information about datacenter/HPC products such as the nVidia Grace CPUs and the nVidia Hopper GPUs. It has the hardware configurations and what differs between the Ampere (RTX 3000) and the Ada Lovelace Architecture, finer details such as caches, number of cores, number of channels, etc.
nVidia confirmed that the information in these are real and that they did suffer a massive data breach.
Wait but you haven’t actually told me how this is related to Nintendo or that it is for Nintendo?
Oh I apologize. In the data breach that they suffered, it contained information about the NVN2 API which had detailed information about the hardware it is meant for. It also has mentions of HOS (Horizon OS) that the Switch and the 3DS use. Has mention of NX product. And has mention of the product device HOVI. All of these are related to Nintendo here, and about the environment of it.
That’s how we know that this Drake SoC has a strong tie to Nintendo. Curiously, internally the device that DRAKE is meant for is still called NX, not anything else.
Not like how Cafe was different from Dolphin or Citrus was different from NX. It refers to it all as NX still and not NX2. The only thing that is reference to as ‘2’ is the graphical portion, as the GPU is different. But it doesn’t seem like the chip is meant for a device that isn’t a Switch (NX). Or that the product that NVN2 is meant for is still… a switch and not something else.
So it’s based off an existing chip?
Of what we know about the chip, called Drake, it has features that are only useful in a video game console, it has worse AI performance than the original chip it is based on (which is for cars), and worse graphical performance for testing and developing neural networks. It also completely lacks hardware for automotive use that are meant for dedicating processing for certain aspects useful in cars such as detection and safety.
So it isn’t a chip meant for cars, and the other chip(ORIN) isn’t something meant for a gaming console. They are meant for different segments.
Can’t nVidia just use it for a new nVidia Shield just like the original chip inside the switch?
Of course they can, but the chip itself is completely overkill for that segment. If they wanted something with better streaming capabilities and just runs Android like the original TX1, they would have made something much smaller, leaner and appropriate for that segment. I need to you though that the last time Nvidia released a consumer grade product that is for people like you and me in a regular living environment was in 2015, since then they have released multiple system on chips but they were for professionals in the automotive and artificial intelligence sector.
They have not released anything that is meant for consumers in such a long time, that if you want to entertain the possibility that a new shield TV can come to the market before this chip comes to the market with a new switch, and that the next switch can come a few years later, you also have to recognize that the chance of that happening is low, considering that the company doesn’t dive into that segment anymore.
Not to mention the last time that they released a new version of a chip that was a consumer grade product was after Nintendo announced and revealed the Nintendo switch lite and the Nintendo switch V2 model. They didn’t do it before, they released it after. In a sense, the shield follows after what Nintendo has released. It was October 2019 while the Lite was September 2019.
If a new consumer segment product does come to pass, it seems likelier that it is after the Switch NEXT, not necessarily before.
Ok what else?
So, it should be 3.5 years since the project for this chip started in January/February.
Let me put this into perspective, if it releases in May 2023(Scenario
), that means that the project has had about 3.8 years of Start-to-Market. That does not mean the same for the concept of the device that could have been 4-5 years from start-to-market.
If the device releases for the Sept-November window (Scenario
), that means that the Drake project has had about 4.1-4.3-ish years of Start-to-Market. Like with scenario red, that does not mean that the project of the console shares the same time, it can be a start-to-market of 5 years or so.
If the device releases March 2024 (Scenario
), the Chip has had a time of 4.6-4.65 years of Start-to-Market. Console project is probably 5-6 years by this point in time.
If the device releases by November 2024 (Scenario
) then the chip has taken over 5 Years of start-to-market. The console project has also taken perhaps 5-6 years in this case.