On the same day as his meeting with Team Tempest, Zaboru held another important meeting outside the ZAGE offices. This time, the meeting was scheduled with Jensen Huang of NVIDIA and Jerry Sanders of AMD. Zaboru had personally asked both of them to meet him at nearby hotels in California, choosing a more private and neutral setting for discussions of this scale. Despite their extremely busy schedules, both Jensen and Jerry agreed to attend without hesitation.
The reason was obvious. Zaboru currently owned a combined total of fifty percent of NVIDIA and AMD, making him one of the largest and most influential shareholders in both companies. Beyond that, ZAGE itself had been providing steady and generous funding to support advanced research into next-generation CPU and GPU technologies. This wasn't a casual business relationship — it was a long-term strategic partnership.
Zaboru had already commissioned both companies to design custom hardware specifically for the future ZAGE Game Boy Advance. Now that the handheld's battery development was complete and the platform itself was ready to move forward, Zaboru wanted a clear update on the progress of the custom CPU and GPU that would power his next-generation handheld.
Not long after, Zaboru arrived at the hotel where the meeting was scheduled. Jensen Huang and Jerry Sanders were already waiting inside the reserved meeting room. The moment they saw each other, Zaboru smiled warmly. "Thanks for coming, despite your busy schedules, Jerry and Jensen," he said as he greeted them.
Jerry laughed lightly and waved his hand. "Heh, there's no schedule busy enough for us to turn you down, boss," he replied with an easy grin. Jensen chuckled as well, but quickly moved the conversation forward, his tone turning businesslike. "So, Zaboru, you're here to check on the progress of the custom GPU and CPU for your handheld, right? The ones you asked us to work on a couple of months ago?"
Zaboru nodded without hesitation. "Yes. The batteries for the handheld are already completed, which means the hardware platform itself is now ready to move into full development," he explained calmly. "So I wanted to know — how far along are the CPU and GPU?"
Jensen nodded in response before answering. "On the GPU side, NVIDIA is almost finished with the design you requested," he said confidently. "Just like you asked, we've named it the Z-Advance GPU. At this point, we only need about one to two more months at most to fully finalize it. After that, the GPU will be completely ready for integration and testing."
Jerry then spoke up, his tone steady and professional. "Well, for the AMD Z-Advance CPU, the situation is fairly similar to NVIDIA's progress," he explained. "We'll need an additional one to two months to fully finalize the design, boss. Most of the architecture is already locked in, but there are still efficiency optimizations and validation steps we want to complete before calling it finished."
Zaboru nodded calmly, clearly understanding the situation. "I see. That's fine," he replied without hesitation. "It's still well within my timeline. So we're looking at roughly two more months before development is fully completed, correct?"
Both Jensen and Jerry nodded in agreement. Jensen then added, "Once both the CPU and GPU are finalized, they'll be ready for mass production. We can immediately hand the designs over to TSMC for manufacturing. From there, it'll just be a matter of coordinating volume, yields, and scheduling.""
Zaboru nodded thoughtfully. "I see. Then that's fine," he said. "Do the specs align with what I originally envisioned?"
Jensen smiled slightly and began explaining in a more detailed, technical manner. "They do," he said confidently. "The NVIDIA Z-Advance GPU was designed from the ground up with a handheld platform in mind. We avoided unnecessary complexity from the very beginning. That's why the rendering model uses a fixed-function pipeline — no programmable shaders. This approach keeps power consumption low, reduces heat output, and ensures performance remains stable and predictable across all workloads."
He continued, tapping the document as he elaborated. "In terms of geometry performance, the polygon throughput peaks at around one million polygons per second under ideal conditions. In real-world scenarios, with texturing, depth testing, and effects enabled, you can realistically expect somewhere between three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand textured polygons per second. That gives developers enough headroom to build detailed 3D environments without overwhelming the system."
"As for features," Jensen went on, clearly in his element, "the GPU supports perspective-correct texturing, which prevents distortion, along with Gouraud shading for smooth lighting transitions. There's a full Z-buffer for proper depth handling, alpha blending for transparency effects, fog for atmosphere, and simple lighting models that strike a balance between visual quality and efficiency."
He paused briefly before adding, "We've also included a dedicated hardware sprite engine specifically for 2D elements and user interface rendering. This offloads a lot of work from the main pipeline and will be extremely useful for menus, HUDs, overlays, and games that rely heavily on sprites."
Jensen nodded once more as he concluded. "Maximum color depth is sixteen-bit, with optional eighteen-bit output support for cleaner gradients. The target resolution is three hundred and twenty by two hundred and forty, and it runs comfortably between thirty to sixty frames per second depending on the workload. Most importantly for a handheld," he added firmly, "power draw stays in the range of roughly zero point seven to one watt. That ensures strong battery life while still delivering the visual performance you were aiming for."
Zaboru's eyes lit up and he nodded, clearly pleased, before turning his attention fully toward Jerry, silently prompting him to go deeper into the CPU details. Jerry straightened slightly in his seat, his expression sharpening as he slipped into full technical mode. "For the AMD Z-Advance CPU," he began confidently, "we decided on a 32-bit RISC architecture — internally closer to an ARM- or MIPS-like design. This choice gives us an excellent balance between efficiency and performance, which is critical for a handheld system."
Jerry continued, speaking steadily. "The core runs at a clock speed of one hundred sixty-six megahertz and uses a clean, five-stage in-order pipeline. That design keeps instruction flow predictable, reduces complexity, and helps us tightly control power consumption and heat output. In other words, it performs consistently without unexpected spikes."
He pointed at the specification sheet as he elaborated further. "For cache, we've implemented a split L1 design — sixteen kilobytes dedicated to instructions and sixteen kilobytes for data. This helps keep frequently used code and assets close to the core. We've also integrated the memory controller directly onto the CPU itself, which significantly reduces latency and improves overall memory efficiency compared to an external controller."
Jerry went on, clearly warming to the explanation. "In addition, the CPU supports fixed-point operations and basic SIMD-style instructions. These will be especially valuable for animation blending, sprite calculations, audio mixing, and other real-time tasks that handheld games rely on heavily."
He finished with a firm nod. "Even under sustained load, power draw stays roughly between zero point eight to one point two watts. That keeps the CPU well within your thermal envelope and battery constraints, while still delivering the performance you're aiming for."
Zaboru grinned, clearly satisfied with the specifications he had just heard. "I see… that's good enough," he said with a relaxed tone, confidence evident in his expression. With the technical discussion settled, the three of them naturally shifted into broader business conversations. They talked about future cooperation, long-term roadmaps, and next-phase strategies, while also touching on the current projects NVIDIA and AMD were handling outside of ZAGE's requests.
Before long, the meeting drew to a close. After exchanging final remarks and handshakes, Zaboru made his way back to his office. Once inside, he finally allowed himself to relax, leaning back in his chair as he started eating the fried chicken his secretary had prepared earlier. The simple, familiar taste contrasted sharply with the high-level negotiations he had just finished, but for Zaboru, moments like this were oddly satisfying — a reminder that even world-shaking plans were built one step at a time.
"I guess we can't fully develop the handheld just yet, but in the next two months, once NVDIA and AMD ready ZAGE Japan can be ready as well, then we can finally move," Zaboru said with a chuckle. Despite the delay, his expression was filled with confidence. He already knew that this handheld would be far more powerful than the Game Boy Advance from his previous life — even if it still sat below the raw performance of the PSP. In its own category, however, the ZAGE Game Boy Advance would be revolutionary. With its custom CPU, GPU, and careful power design, Zaboru was certain it would shake the world once it was revealed.
Finishing that thought, Zaboru ate quickly, clearly more focused on what came next than on the food itself. He washed everything down with a long drink of water before setting the empty container aside. Without wasting any time, he returned to work. Even if full hardware development couldn't begin yet, there was still plenty he could do. He began planning which games would launch alongside the ZGBA, carefully considering release timing, genre balance, and flagship titles.
Now was the brainstorming phase — preparing concepts, outlining launch lineups, and deciding which games would define the identity of the ZAGE Game Boy Advance when it finally entered the market in the near future.
To be continue
AN: The CPU and GPU specs were something I asked ChatGPT about. I'm not sure how plausible they are in the real world, so please don't roast me, lol.
And yeah, modern tech is kind of beyond me despite my hobby is mostly about customizing old consoles.
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