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XBox 360 Specs Released [Triple Core @ 3.2Ghz each]

fry said:
Everyone seems to be saying that the processor in the xbox has in-order execution? Where'd that tidbit come from?
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I've read it in several places. Yes, it's clearly a rumor, but one I tend to believe because:

1) Can you imagine the heat (and number of transisters needed) if you had 3.2Ghz, triple core chip that could do OOOE? That would take some serious liquid cooling! Yes, the Xbox will have liquid cooling, but you still get my point.

2) The price of the CPU would by too high for even MS to subsidize. It has to be stripped out with fewer transisters. In other words, it's a fast and dumb processor. Fast and dumb processors (fewer transisters and smaller instruction codes) can't very well handle OOOE.
 
Not to mention that the ONLY PowerPC processor IBM has that runs at >3 GHz is the PowerPC in the Cell, which is- you guessed it- in order.
 
Bunzi2k4 said:
If people can put Linux on a GBA and Nintendo DS, I'm sure it's possible to get Linux running fairly well on the Xbox360
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I agree, but getting it to run vs. running well, are two completely different things. Like I said, running games written specifically for a gaming cpu is different that running spreadsheets and Filemaker on a gaming cpu.

But your point is valid.
 
WOw. The topics getting rehashed from the previous posts. Poor fellow who's going to make the journey of reading all these posts, only to find duplicate posts written in different ways.
 
GFLPraxis said:
Huh? The XBox uses standard DVD's. The movie industry already supports standard DVD's...
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Did I read something wrong? Doesn't the new XBOX support HD-DVD output using WMV based DVDs? Some movies already include a 2nd disk that is HD - like terminator 2. Using either WMV or h.264, it doesn't take a new format to fit an HD movie on the existing DVD media.
 
I don't know why mac people are upset about the processer. It's a very good thing that MS, Sony and Nintendo are all spending a ton of money to improve IBM's processor business. They're each willing to lose money to help make the PowerPC a better platform.
 
A bit more news on the revolution

Hey I just read this and found it pretty interesting. Isn't the Revolution supposed to house two G5 processors... or at least something similar?

quote: The Electronics Entertainment Expo 2005 is still days away, but that hasn't stopped Microsoft from debuting its Xbox 360 console on MTV. And now Nintendo has followed suit, revealing some new, meaty details about its next-generation console, codenamed Revolution.

In a recent New York Times article, Nintendo of America's vice president of corporate affairs Perrin Kaplan describes the console as "very, very sleek." The system, which is reportedly tiny, will stand horizontally. Its width will reportedly be no more than three DVD cases stacked flatly on each other, or slightly more than an inch.

the entire article can be found here http://cube.ign.com/articles/613/613340p1.html

obviously you can guess what this might mean for us mac users.
 
I agree that the CPUs are stripped down. They must have much longer CPU pipelines than the 970FX so there is more of a performance penalty for instructions that can't be easily predicted. That doesn't really matter for a game platform because most instructions are going to come in the order that the CPU expects them, but for a PC, there is a pretty significant performance hit. That is why AMD and Apple's CPUs can compete with the P4 at higher clock speeds, and blow its doors off MHz for MHz.

Still Apple needs to do something soon. My G5 is almost 2 years old and I am getting the itch to buy something. There is just nothing to buy.
 
SPUY767 said:
Who heard him claim that this thing pumps out a teraflop? A freaking teraflop!? My dual G5 only cranks out 28 and that's with both procs at full tilt, either they've incorporated a 42U Xserve cluster in this bad boy or someone needs to go to math class more often.
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You're not counting the same thing. If you could put a Wildcat Realizm 800 in it, you would have 700 gigaflops right there.
 
Lurch_Mojoff said:
What about Revolution or PS3? They also use PPC. Do NES and Sony have their propriatory API's or do they use OpenGL?
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PS3 will use OpenGL ES. Nintendo uses their own GX API.
 
sigh. just like the 1.25 GHz g4 chip in the machines was the same one in the 1.67 now, and they waited quite a while before upgrading the powerbooks to 1.67, they can easily boost the speed but making it stable is another issue. i'm sure IBM has this under control. it would have to be stable enough to be produced this summer for a november release, so i'm sure a powermac update is on the horizon.

as for the 48 pipelines, there was a leaked REAL video from microsoft, with the guy from the labs on the MTV event, describing it. it was similar to the various apple videos you see with schiller and ives talking about the details. but it distinctly said 3 cores, and 48 pipelines. it didnt mention a speed.

and ATI makes custom graphics cards, not designed for desktops, all the time. chances are this will be integrated into the motherboard. i don't see what's so unbelievable.
 
It will be interesting to hear what he has to say

It will be interesting to hear what Steve Jobs will say about these processors at WWDC. I hope that he'll be able to shed some light on this issue. I wonder if there will be PowerMac upgrades by Christmas ... I guess we'll have to wait and see.

At least I have one of the fastest PowerMac at the time of this posting :D
 
Microsoft Stealing from Apple Again???

Does Microsoft have to use the same processors as Apple just to compete with Sony's next generation Playstation. The processors that Apple uses in the PowerMacs and iMacs must be good enough for Microsoft to use in a gaming console.
 
What's really amazing, to me, is not so much whether the Xbox360 is backward-compatible with the Xbox, as that nobody, even on the Xbox sites, even asks the question.

One guy said "What a great day to be an Xbox gamer." I'd disagree: If I had an Xbox, I'd be wondering if I should buy any more games, or whether I'd want to buy new versions of the games I already have... At least I'd be asking the question.

Something very strange is going on here...
 
amac4me said:
It will be interesting to hear what Steve Jobs will say about these processors at WWDC. I hope that he'll be able to shed some light on this issue.
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That's what everyone in the audience will be thinking, even if Steve skirts around the issue.
 
cubist said:
What's really amazing, to me, is not so much whether the Xbox360 is backward-compatible with the Xbox, as that nobody, even on the Xbox sites, even asks the question.

One guy said "What a great day to be an Xbox gamer." I'd disagree: If I had an Xbox, I'd be wondering if I should buy any more games, or whether I'd want to buy new versions of the games I already have... At least I'd be asking the question.

Something very strange is going on here...
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I don't know what sites you're reading but that question is asked all of the time. No one knows yet.
 
OK, summary time, what is it and what is not:

is not:
-The PowerPC inside the xBox is of unknow type, wich mean and can be far from the 970 (G5), 74557(G4), 750(G3) we currently know. Some PowerPc base chip are used in router at very high speed. Just take a look at the freescale PowerPC webpage, there's a lot of PowerPC for different use. It mean and can be a really strip down and optimize to do gaming only. A G4 dual cores already existe.
-A weak graphic card, who say this? It's a strong graphic one, the graphic board is optimize for floating point operation and use the same Memory as the system in DDR3. It's really overkill. The old xBox was using old nVidia chipset. It not an equivallent as your computer chipset cause less operation better bandwith, and the keyword is dynamically.

is:
-Three core chip, ok handle 1 for video and 1 for audio and 1 for AI, or something like that. It will be a killer.
-Each unit have VMX (aka Altivec for Apple), that's the name IBM give to this technology. That's a great news, see below.

Summary for Mac user:
It doesn't mean G5 at 3 cores or anything like that soon, we don't even know if it have a 32 or 64 Bit processor. The good part, is that game written for xBox 360 will be easier to port to Mac, cause instruction RISC and the VMX code. The icy cream is that game will be a lot more optimize and a lot less BS on Mac coming from xBox 360, already VMX code inside and multi core support. That's all. don't hope more then this.
 
Ti_Poussin said:
OK, summary time, what is it and what is not:

Summary for Mac user:
It doesn't mean G5 at 3 cores or anything like that soon, we don't even know if it have a 32 or 64 Bit processor. The good part, is that game written for xBox 360 will be easier to port to Mac, cause instruction RISC and the VMX code. The icy cream is that game will be a lot more optimize and a lot less BS on Mac coming from xBox 360, already VMX code inside and multi core support. That's all. don't hope more then this.
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a game written for xbox 360 won't be easy to port to mac just because it's the same instruction set. that's like saying a program for x86 linux will be easy to port to windows because they're the same instruction set. not true. (granted, the linux example isnt the greatest, because most libraries are already ported, but pretend like they aren't, like with the xbox 360).
 
Peace said:
Man I wish I had that problem..Cable's like 40 bucks a month and you have a 34"1080i TV ??.
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i'm in the same boat. i, too, have a 34" WEGA XBR hi-def tv...and no cable. i bought the TV almost 2 years ago, moved 7 months ago and haven't had cable since i moved.

true, it's only $40/mo for basic cable, but tack on the Digital & High Def packages on top of that & you're at about $65/mo. i just don't know if i watch $2+ worth of TV per day. it's a freakin' ripoff.

but even my old Xbox looks/sounds sweet in high def & 5.1 surround! i can't WAIT to see what this puppy can crank out. i'm tired of reading about the specs, i want to see what those specs can PRODUCE. no one buys a car for the engine, you buy it b/c of what that engine can do...bring on the E3 coverage!
 
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