Nintendo's 3DS stole the show at the just-wrapped E3 2010, and now details on the technology at the core of its graphics are emerging in the form of an announcement from Japanese hardware firm Digital Media Professional.
DMP says its Pica 200 graphics core processor is powering the 3DS, along with proprietary 3D graphics extensions it calls "Maestro technology."
According to the company, it implements "complex shader functionality" through the hardware to enable high-performance graphics to be rendered on mobile devices that require low power consumption.
"We had a very ambitious goal in the realization of naked-eye 3D stereo vision, and video game console style high quality graphics rendering, whilst maintaining low power consumption," says the company's president and CEO, Tatsuo Yamamoto. "I am delighted that we were able to contribute with ‘Maestro technology’, which we have developed over several years at DMP."
The device received an enormously positive reception from analysts, fans and the media when it was shown at E3. Wedbush analysts Michael Pachter and Edward Woo
described it as "truly impressive" and a device that "appears to us to be the 'must have' consumer electronics product over the next few years."
Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald
was also impressed with the glasses-free 3D technology of the device, which also contains a gyroscope for tilt sensitivity and a 3D camera, and suggested "the only thing that could derail the 3DS now is too high of a price point. We think $199 is the best bet."
