Author: Terry McCracken
Date: 15:45:34 05/13/05
Go up one level in this thread
On May 13, 2005 at 13:20:22, Steve Maughan wrote: >The spec for the new XBox has been released. I somewhat suprised that it >doesn't contain an Intel chip but it does look to really quite powerful (6 >hardware thread!). Are there any hardware experts out there that would like to >comment? This could be a cheap piece of hardware that could play a mean game of >chess. > >Comments? > >Steve > > >========================================================================= >Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU >- Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each >- Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total >- VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total >- 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread >- 1 MB L2 cache > > >CPU Game Math Performance >- 9 billion dot product operations per second > >Custom ATI Graphics Processor >- 500MHz processor >- 10 MB of embedded DRAM >- 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines >- Unified shader architecture > >Polygon Performance >- 500 million triangles per second > >Pixel Fill Rate >- 16 gigasamples per second fill rate using 4x MSAA > >Shader Performance >- 48 billion shader operations per second > >Memory >- 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM >- 700 MHz of DDR >- Unified memory architecture > >Memory Bandwidth >- 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth >- 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM >- 21.6 GB/s front-side bus > >Overall System Floating-Point Performance >- 1 teraflop > >Storage >- Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive >- 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM >- Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB > >I/O >- Support for up to four wireless game controllers >- Three USB 2.0 ports >- Two memory unit slots > >Optimized for Online >- Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features with broadband service, >including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, gamer profile for >digital identity, and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, >watching movies or listening to music >- Built-in Ethernet port >- Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g >- Video camera ready > >Digital Media Support >- Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, >CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD >- Ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras and >Windows XP-based PCs >- Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive • Custom playlists in every >game >- Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 >- Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers > >High-Definition Game Support >- All games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-aliasing >- Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported > >Audio >- Multichannel surround sound output >- Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio >- 320 independent decompression channels >- 32-bit audio processing >- Over 256 audio channels > >System Orientation >- Stands vertically or horizontally > >Customizable Face Plates >- Interchangeable to personalize the console This is pretty amazing! Here's what I recieved in my e-mail. Good Morning Silicon Valley Published: Friday May 13, 2005 Xbox 360 blamed for irritable bowel syndrome outbreak at Sony Computer Entertainment By JOHN PACZKOWSKI With losses of about $1.2 billion in each of the past two fiscal years, Microsoft's Xbox division is hoping it's got a hit on its hands with the Xbox 360. And it appears that may well be the case. Boasting an elegant design so atypical of Redmond that a Japanese focus group was convinced it was made by Apple or Sony, the much-anticipated Xbox 360 console is quite a departure from the unremarkable black brick of a box that debuted in late 2001. Its official announcement at Thursday night's half-hour MTV "special" (transcript) confirmed much of the hype that prefigured its debut. The Xbox 360 runs three 3.2-gigahertz IBM PowerPC processors and boasts a removable 20-gigabyte hard-disk drive that can be used to store and transport games in progress and digital music and photo files. It's got built-in HD DVD playback. And it can act as a home entertainment hub, streaming pictures, music and video from digital cameras, portable music players and computers running Microsoft Windows XP. "I think people want to say it's the Trojan horse or the hub of the home," said J Allard, Microsoft corporate vice president and chief XNA architect. "It's not. Xbox 360 is a digital amplifier. You're not going to put all of your music on 360, you're going to do it on your PC. What I do think is you want to enjoy your music in your home theater and we want to enable that through this device." Call it what you will, Xbox 360 is a powerful play for control of our living rooms. "They view the console as more than a platform for video games," Michael Goodman, senior analyst at Yankee Group, told the L.A. Times. "Their vision is that the console will evolve as the centerpiece for the digital living room. That means digital distribution of games, movies, music, video. The whole digital enchilada." Comment on this post What do you mean you still don't know if it's backward compatible? That's the question I found myself asking after reading Xbox corporate VP Peter Moore's comments in today's Post Intelligencer. Asked if the Xbox 360 will play games designed for its predecessor, Moore said, "We don't know yet, as scary as that is." Scary? Terrifying is more like it. Backward compatibility is going to be a critical issue in the coming console wars. Nintendo has already confirmed that its Revolution device will be backward compatible with the GameCube, and Sony's PS3 will almost certainly play games designed for the PS2. If Xbox 360 isn't backward compatible with its predecessor, gamers may think twice about upgrading. "Should the Xbox 360 be incompatible with the current generation Xbox, we think that publishers will face a dilemma. Most will plan to produce SKUs for the PS2, PSP, and Xbox 360, but will be faced with a decision whether to produce future games for the current generation Xbox," Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter wrote in his report, "Xbox 360 Debut Tomorrow: Answering the $2.4 Billion Compatibility Question." "If the Xbox 360 is incompatible, sales of current generation Xbox hardware are likely to decline rapidly, making the support decision even more difficult. Further complicating the decision is the cost of next-generation software development, expected to be $10-15 million per game, compared to $3-5 million for current generation software development. In order to support both the current and next generation Xboxes, publishers will be required to spend $13-20 million per game chasing a combined installed base that is not assured to grow over the first few years without backward compatibility." Comment on this post =============================================================================== http://features.teamxbox.com/xbox/1143/Taking-a-Spin-with-the-Xbox-360/p1/ Terry
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