Nintendo chooses Japan's Pica 3D engine over AMD, Nvidia

22.06.2010
Nintendo's 3DS portable game console will uses a graphics processing engine designed by a Japanese company, which was selected over technology from graphics heavyweights like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, an analyst said.

Digital Media Professionals (DMP), of Tokyo, on Monday that its PICA200 graphics technology was being used by Nintendo, ending speculation over who developed the graphics engine for the new game console. The , which Nintendo first showed off during the E3 games conference last week, is the successor to the company's popular Nintendo DS handheld gaming console.

Like the DS, the prototype 3DS shown off at E3 had two screens, one measuring 3.5 inches on top and another measuring 3 inches below. But the console's principal feature is the ability to display 3D graphics that don't require the user to wear special glasses -- a feature that's made possible by DMP's graphics engine.

The deal with Nintendo gives DMP a big boost.

Nintendo chose the company's graphics technology after considering technology from AMD's ATI division, which designed the graphics chips used in Nintendo's Wii console and Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, wrote graphics analyst Jon Peddie on his . Other companies that Nintendo considered include Nvidia, which designed the graphics chips in Sony's PlayStation 3, as well as Arm, the developer of the graphics technology used in the Nintendo DS.

Another company that Nintendo considered in its three-year search for the right graphics technology was Imagination Technologies, a U.K. developer of graphics technology that counts Apple as a shareholder, he wrote.