Report: Nintendo’s next console ships late 2024, still supports cartridges

Sources shared some basic details about the new device, too.

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[Sabrewings]

There is no real reason not to have backwards compatibility. Unless they go with a completely different cpu/gpu architecture. Now the thing would be digital and physical backwards compatibility or just digital.

Depending on what silicon they go with, it could be difficult on the GPU side. We haven't heard much from Tegra chips on a while, but the Switch Tegra uses a GPU based on Maxwell Nvidia architecture (9xx GPU generation). Nvidia architecture generations are not intercompatible. Either they go with a much larger Maxwell GPU, or maybe they go with an architecture more modern (like Ampere). If they go the more modern direction, some sort of driver level translation will be necessary for existing Switch games.

 

[Sabrewings]

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Custo...itch-2-rumor-hits-the-4chan-fan.732467.0.html
It's been going around. Staying with nvidia should provide some backward compatibility.

Right, and that kinda proves my point. That chip uses Ampere graphics architecture. Since it's different than the currently used Maxwell, it's going to take some work to maintain backwards compatibility. Games from the online store can be recompiled so there's a new version, but existing cartridges will be a problem without a live translation layer.

 

[Sabrewings]

Reading the previous Ars article on the subject says it isn’t true. The Switch included a driver stack with every game so back compatibility requires an emulator or at least a GPU driver that presents the HW as if it were the same as found in the Switch.

It’s certainly not impossible, it’s just not obviously simple. For example Rosetta was Apple’s solution for backwards compatible software. Rather than an emulator it was a binary translator that more or less recompiled x86 to ARM. A similar shim would map GPU code from one architecture to another without letting the Switch game know the new GPU exists.

Based on history, that software would have to be written by Nvidia. Nintendo has lost engineering chops, and I am not sure they have the source available. See: Nintendo lifting publicly available emulators for their retro devices. And they BUILT the original hardware.