Patrick Mannion
TechOnline

The next round of game-platform redesigns may still be four to five years out, but chip and software designers in the areas of wireless, microeletromechanical systems, displays, miniature cameras, sensors, actuators and storage have an opportunity to be part of those multi-100-million shipments as platforms respond faster to user demands by converging on interactivity, connectivity and information display.

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Indeed, that convergence may push gaming platforms from peripheral to the center of the home-entertainment system and replace the set-top box with broadband and cable/satellite capability, complemented by fully digital or optical audio and video inputs and outputs and PVR storage.

These were just some of the conclusions reached by Semiconductor Insights at the end of videotaped teardowns of gaming platforms past and present, from the Playstation 3 (), Nintendo Wii () and the Xbox 360 Elite (), all the way back to the Atari 2600 (), from 1986, a design little changed from the original 1977 Atari. The Atari retrospective teardown, and the accompanying On-Demand webinar (Atari 2600 vs. PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 Elite) shows just how far game-platform design has come.

It not only exposed the sheer magnitude of the performance and cost improvements but also shed light on the changes in technology, design practices and business models that have taken place between the 2600 and Xbox 360 Elite. It also provided the perspective necessary to predict where gaming boxes are headed—and what opportunities may lay ahead for second- and third-tier chip and software designers eager to land a socket in next-generation platform designs.

"It's laughable looking back at the Atari versus the Playstation 3," said Greg Quirk, technology marketing manager at Semiconductor Insights—and an avid gamer. "It had basically three chips from UMC," he said, and even those were put onto one Xilinx FPGA in 2005, "with plenty of [FPGA] capacity left over." In comparison, the PS3 has a dozen devices. The FPGA-based Flashback redesign was done by Atari as part of its 30-year anniversary celebration. Legacy Engineering did the design work. "They reengineered it down to minimize cost—and make a quick buck off the original," said Allan Yogasingam, manager, strategic supply chain at SI and also an avid gamer.

However, the Ataris debuted in a different era, at a time of no competition and little pressure from users. That led to a design that was geared more toward cosmetics. "Back then they didn't have to focus on margins and how they can save: it just had to look cool," said Quirk. "Now we design more for cost, heat [management], cooling and [efficient] test." Atari also made a profit on the platform, versus the games. That model has since been inverted, with only Nintendo now managing to scratch out a small profit from the platform, the rest—Sony and Microsoft—make their money on the aftermarket games, said Quirk.

While the design and profit models have changed, one of the biggest changes is the level to which users are driving the designs. With the original platforms, Atari could more or less dictate what would be included. "Now users are making the demands," said Yogasingam, referring to increasing pull for better graphics, higher definition, storage, interactivity, wireless connectivity and online gaming capability.