Back before the Wii U was released, the rumors surrounding its hardware were crazy. Everyone wanted to know what was inside Nintendo’s new console, and speculations were rampant. Now the console has been out for a few months, and many have attempted to break open the box and analyze what’s inside.
However, to get a professional snapshot of the CPU, to see what’s really inside and to analyze its specs is something that only professionals can do with some seriously sophisticated instruments. Chipworks, who provide reverse engineering information about computer chips of all sorts, did exactly that on the Wii U CPU, and provided the specs and photo of the CPU die.
Wii U CPU specs
- Cores: 3
- Speed: 1.24 GHz
- 3 MB eDRAM L2 cache:
Core 0: 512 kB
Core 1: 2 MB
Core 2: 512 kB - 32 kB L1 Instruction cache
- 32 kB L1 Data Cache
- When playing Wii games, only Core 0 is active
The CPU itself is tiny, measuring only 4.74 x 5.85mm. Of course, these specs don’t really matter — it’s always the games that matter and what developers can do with the console. But if you’re a hardware freak, now you know what powers the Wii U.
