Broadway is the codename of the 32-bit Central Processing Unit (CPU) used in Nintendo

Nintendo

is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....

's Wii

Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

 video game console

Video game console

A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...

. It was designed by IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

, and is currently being produced using a 90 nm SOI

Silicon on insulator

Silicon on insulator technology refers to the use of a layered silicon-insulator-silicon substrate in place of conventional silicon substrates in semiconductor manufacturing, especially microelectronics, to reduce parasitic device capacitance and thereby improving performance...

 process.

According to IBM, the processor consumes 20% less power than its predecessor, the 180 nm Gekko

Gekko (microprocessor)

Gekko is a 32-bit PowerPC microprocessor custom made by IBM in 2000 for Nintendo to use as the CPU in their sixth generation game console, the Nintendo GameCube.-Development:...

 used in the Nintendo GameCube

Nintendo GameCube

The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...

 video game console

Video game console

A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...

.

Broadway is being produced by IBM at their 300 mm semiconductor development and manufacturing facility in East Fishkill

East Fishkill, New York

East Fishkill is a town on the southern border of Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 25,589 at the 2000 census. The town name is derived from its formation from Fishkill, NY....

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. The bond, assembly, and test operation for the Broadway module is performed at the IBM facility in Bromont

Bromont, Quebec

Bromont is a city in southwestern Quebec in Canada, 75 kilometres east of Montreal on Autoroute 10, bordering the Eastern Townships at the base of Mount Brome . The population as of the Canada 2006 Census was 6,049....

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

. Very few official details have been released to the public by Nintendo or IBM. Unofficial reports claim it is derived from the 485 MHz

Hertz

The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....

 Gekko

Gekko (microprocessor)

Gekko is a 32-bit PowerPC microprocessor custom made by IBM in 2000 for Nintendo to use as the CPU in their sixth generation game console, the Nintendo GameCube.-Development:...

 architecture used in the GameCube and runs 50% faster at 729 MHz.

In March 2009, IBM shipped the 50 millionth Broadway processor to Nintendo.

Specifications

• 90 nanometer process technology
• Power Architecture
  Power Architecture
  Power Architecture is a broad term to describe similar RISC instruction sets for microprocessors developed and manufactured by such companies as IBM, Freescale, AMCC, Tundra and P.A. Semi...
  
   core, specially modified for the Wii platform
• IBM silicon on insulator
  Silicon on insulator
  Silicon on insulator technology refers to the use of a layered silicon-insulator-silicon substrate in place of conventional silicon substrates in semiconductor manufacturing, especially microelectronics, to reduce parasitic device capacitance and thereby improving performance...
  
   (SOI) technology
• Backward compatible with the Gekko
  Gekko (microprocessor)
  Gekko is a 32-bit PowerPC microprocessor custom made by IBM in 2000 for Nintendo to use as the CPU in their sixth generation game console, the Nintendo GameCube.-Development:...
  
   processor
• 729 MHz
  Hertz
  The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
  
  
• 32-bit integer unit
• 64-bit floating-point (or 2 × 32-bit SIMD, often found under the denomination "paired singles")
• 64 KB L1 cache (32 KB instruction + 32 KB data)
• 256 KB L2 cache
• 2.9 GFLOPS
  FLOPS
  In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second...