Question Voltage requirements

[ShockSlayer]

We know the draws of the Wii's voltage lines:

someone should really convert this to text

The question I have is this: does anyone have any concrete evidence to suggest we absolutely must power the 1v and 1.15v line separately?

Initially it was suggested that the different voltages were due to being used as a reference, however I've run the Wii off of a single 1.1v line, without any determinable problems. However, I have in no way, shape, or form, extensively tested this setup.

Going from what we know about the Gamecube, it powers both processors on a single 1.9v line; however it's been demonstrated that you can run them on as low as 1.5v for one, and 1.7v for the other, however inefficient that may actually be. I'm curious to know if the Wii is similarly flexible.

 

[cheese]

Theoretically you should be able to power both off of lower/higher voltages, since this is essentially a PC, and PCs have the option to over/under volt CPUs and GPUs (Broadway and Hollywood respectively). However, the stability will decrease if you undervolt, and the heat output will increase if you overvolt.

Also, the text of the image

No Disc Drive:
Idle:
3.3v line 0.6A or 1.98W
1.0v line 1.5A or 1.5W
1.15v line 1.75A or 2.0125W

In game:
3.3v line 0.66A or 2.178W
1.0v line 1.53A or 1.53W
1.15v line 1.8A or 2.07W


With Disc Drive:
Idle:
3.3v line 0.71A or 2.343W
1.0v line 1.52A or 1.52W
1.15v line 1.825A or 2.09875W

In game:
3.3v line 0.74A or 2.442W
1.0v line 1.54A or 1.54W
1.15v line 1.84A or 2.116W

 

[Gman]

Yeah I had the 1v and 1.15v shorted for a while and games played like they should but I never did a long test run. I have been putting some thought back into shorting the lines because then we can get away with using a single dual-output voltage regulator to power the Wii.

 

[ShockSlayer]

However, the stability will decrease if you undervolt, and the heat output will increase if you overvolt.

So then I suppose the question is, how much additional heat is 0.1v? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[Shank]

The earliest diagrams of running custom voltage regulators merged the 1v and 1.15v lines and ran them off of 1.2v. Even the first draft of Gmans guide called for the merging of the two lines. We stopped doing so after bentomo suggested that it could be detrimental, as the "logic is 10% off".

I ran some low voltage tests and was able to get the consoles to boot and run on lower than stock voltages. I was able to run the 1.15v as low as .916, 1v as low as .867, and 3.3v as low as 2.995.

Its funny you should mention this, because gman, mega and I were just talking about this earlier today in the teamspeak. Personally, I think it shouldn't cause any problems.

The CPU runs on 1.15v
The ram runs on 1.8v
The video chip runs on 1.8v
The peripherals ICs all run on 3.3v

The GPU runs on 1v,
BUT it connects to the voltage lines of the 1.15v, 1.8v and 3.3v, so the gpu should be able to set an accurate reference for logic, since its connected to all the voltage lines, I would think the logic would be able to properly "calibrate" itself. I don't know the engineering terms for it, but thats the idea.