Nintendo: Supplemental Computing Devices Patent Cleared

What are your thoughts on this patent? I like how this can add more power to the NX. But how much more will it add?

https://mynintendonews.com/2016/04/18/nintendo-supplemental-computing-devices-patent-cleared/

https://sickr.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/main_scd7vsrw.png?w=840

You may remember that Nintendo had previously filed for a patent for game consoles (home consoles and handhelds) to draw their power from other devices not just the console itself. This could be from additional devices and applications such as cloud based devices which are called supplemental computing devices. Well, the patent for this how now been passed by the United States Trademark and Patent Office so we could effectively see this in the forthcoming NX platform.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=201255498

So the NX is an addon to the WiiU?

No. Here's 2 videos.

From CommonWealth's Zelda NX video I paraphrase/quote:

If this is true then the NX will be just like a gaming PC, with the base model being cheap and being about as powerful as the Xbox One, but if gamers want that extra processing and graphical capabilities to play games at a better resolution and frame rate, they can get this device to play the games like that. Imagine Hyrule in glorious 4K.

End quote.

So yeah, I guess there will be a supplemental device used to process 1080p to 4K for the NX. Like the expansion pak for the N64, except instead of increasing storage, it increases processing power.

@GameboyTroy: Thanks, I didn't see the first video! This could be really good news if Nintendo brings the patent to reality. Backwards compatibility is still uncertain, but next most interesting thing to me would be the portable/home hybrid aspect. Some have suggested that the SCD would not only take care of future power problems, but also scalability for backwards compatibility. E3 is going to be exciting this year.

Sounds incredibly stupid.

So it's probably true. Nintendo loves making dumb choices.

seems like between Sony and Nintendo, one has good intel on the other.

Although I'm sure current ps4 users would love to be able to buy an add-on rather than a Neo/PS4K

To me it depends on how cheap the base model is

I like it as long as its wireless and dont have to be on display.

Sounds incredibly stupid, how will they link the two devices. They would need a high speed interface (we are talking 10+ gigabytes per second), to do so you would have to have a very short cable or plug the device itself into the other device. It's already been established distributed computing over a network is a fail, no game dev wants to touch it with a stick as you need to write pretty complicated software and waste a lot of time trying to get it to work.

If the biggest software company on the planet is struggling, you really don't want to be touching it.

right because releasing whole new .5 consoles instead is so much more consumor freindly right!?

If it's an extra local processor, awesome, if it's like Xbox one's teh cloud, i'd only want it to be used in online multiplayer but even then I don't like it since it could disjoint the single and multiplayer experience too much.

Enough of teh cloud, just make stronger hardware.

Any more thoughts?

@GameboyTroy: Will it expand the NX processing power and do cloud saves and storage? Or one or the other? Will it affect graphics? Will it make waffles?

right...on a side note first: stupid patent system. this has already been done to death.....from GPU bays for laptops to cloud gaming....its done. can nintendo sue all these companies now?

anywho on topic: the interfaces are there to do it now: as i mentioned, some companies (MSI for one i think) have made small cases that can house a desktop GPU. this small case then docs the laptop giving it a mighty performance boost.

so there are a few scenarios here to look at

1) the hybrid. bring mobile device along...it has a pretty beefy CPU and decent mobile GPU but most of the CPU cores are turned off when the device is not plugged in. bring it home, dock it, the rest of the hardware powers up and it has desktop class graphics (and maybe things like more ram).

2) an optional upgrade. all NX games are made with 2 performance vectors (maybe more in the future): one for the standard console and for those looking for a more premium experience the extra module will provide more frames and a higher resolution for the same games. this would solve nintendos pricing issue as they could offer a cheap base station and, for those that care, they can upgrade. essentially what sony are doing with the PS4.5.....but more flexible (well depending on the interface between the 2 units. enough to house extra CPU, ram and GPU and the connection not to become a bottleneck?). it wouldnt be the first time nintendo have doen such a thing.

Hopefully it's just a patent to add to their patent arsenal for a later date.

Or, maybe it speaks of the ability of a hybrid device, like a handheld portable that scales when in the presence of a device to deliver a more home console experience by providing extra power to upscale games for TV, like say the game is scaled to handheld but in the presence of the supplemental power unit in a home near a TV you can dock the portable and it scales graphics for the TV and allows for wireless controller for play, and transmits to TV via wireless dongle to save people the hassle of cords. Hey, that'd be cool, I'd rather see that than see Nintendo fail at delivering the beefcake console trying to get third party western games.

What's stupid about it?

Nintendo Xfire (as in Crossfire - AMD dual cards tech)... lol :P

@osan0: I think your second scenario is what I think would happen if they did this.