Post by Jlhfit on May 29, 2005 17:40:35 GMT -5
Hardware specifications
Significantly, the Intel x86 processor of the Xbox has been replaced by a custom IBM-designed processor based on the PowerPC architecture.
According to the official Xbox website the final specifications of the system are:
Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz
Two hardware threads per core; six total
VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total
128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
1MB L2 cache
Custom ATI R500 Based GPU "Xenos"
500 MHz GPU (90nm process)
10 MB embedded DRAM (256 GB/s memory bandwidth, 2GHz Bus)
48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines
Unified shader architecture (This means that the pipelines are shared between pixel pipelines and vertex shaders; e.g. 42 pixel pipelines : 6 vertex shaders.)
Polygon Performance: 500 million triangles per second
Pixel Fill Rate: 16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X MSAA
Shader Performance: 48 billion shader operations per second (96 billion shader operations per second theoretical maximum)
Dot product operations: 9 billion per second (Microsoft figure)
Memory
512 MB 700MHz GDDR-3 RAM (unified memory architecture)
Memory Bandwidth
22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
21.6 GB/s frontside bus
Overall System Floating-Point Performance
1 TFLOPS
Audio
Multichannel surround sound output
Supports 48khz 16-bit audio
320 independent decompression channels
32 bit processing
256+ audio channels
Controller
Xbox 360 controllerThe Xbox 360 has the ability to support four wireless controllers. Additionally it can support three wired controllers through the use of its USB ports (two in front, one in back). The wired controller cords are nine feet in length and are breakaway similar to those used with the Xbox.
The controller for the Xbox 360 is a similar yet improved version of the Type-S gamepad for the original Xbox. The Xbox 360 controller, adds the new feature of the Xbox guide button, which has the appearance of the Xbox 360 emblem and is surrounded by a ring of light. Pressing the Xbox guide button will bring the Xbox 360 out of sleep mode or instantly bring up the "Xbox Guide". The ring of light lights up to designate what controller "port" the gamepad is currently using and which console (if more than one) the controller is connected to. The black and white buttons have been redesigned as shoulder buttons, now refered to as bumper buttons, located above the left and right triggers. The rear of the controller has been redesigned to include a new port where the player can connect a headset. The new port replaces the old multi-purpose connector on the front of the Xbox controller.
Xbox Guide
The Xbox Guide is a tabbed interface that contains several features such as:
Xbox Live
Marketplace
Favorites List
Custom Playlists
Friends Lists
and more
Miscellaneous
Support for WMV HD DVD Video, Standard DVD-video, DVD-Rom, DVD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-Rom, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG photo CD
All games support a 16:9 aspect ratio, and 720p and 1080i video modes
Standard definition and high definition video output supported
At least 4x Anti-Aliasing will be enabled at all times
Customizable face plates to change appearance
3 USB 2.0 ports
Support for 4 wireless controllers
Detachable 20GB hard drive
Wi-Fi ready (802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g), using an Xbox 360-specific or third-party wireless bridge accessory. Xbox 360 consoles will automatically detect and link with other Xbox 360 consoles within range.
Backward compatibility
According to J Allard during Microsoft's E3 Press Conference, the Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with original Xbox games with Xbox Live support, however, it is possible that it may not be fully backward-compatible with all Xbox games. J Allard stated, "Xbox 360 will be backward-compatible with top-selling Xbox games". The ambiguous statement has many media outlets believing that Microsoft may pick and choose certain games. Steve Ballmer in an interview with Engadget has stated that they will concentrate on making sure the best selling titles, such as Halo and Halo 2, are compatible, and by engineering. Michael Brundage a Microsoft software engineer, says in their site about the current challenge to develop an emulator, granting more reliable and solid compability.
Significantly, the Intel x86 processor of the Xbox has been replaced by a custom IBM-designed processor based on the PowerPC architecture.
According to the official Xbox website the final specifications of the system are:
Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz
Two hardware threads per core; six total
VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total
128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
1MB L2 cache
Custom ATI R500 Based GPU "Xenos"
500 MHz GPU (90nm process)
10 MB embedded DRAM (256 GB/s memory bandwidth, 2GHz Bus)
48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines
Unified shader architecture (This means that the pipelines are shared between pixel pipelines and vertex shaders; e.g. 42 pixel pipelines : 6 vertex shaders.)
Polygon Performance: 500 million triangles per second
Pixel Fill Rate: 16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X MSAA
Shader Performance: 48 billion shader operations per second (96 billion shader operations per second theoretical maximum)
Dot product operations: 9 billion per second (Microsoft figure)
Memory
512 MB 700MHz GDDR-3 RAM (unified memory architecture)
Memory Bandwidth
22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
21.6 GB/s frontside bus
Overall System Floating-Point Performance
1 TFLOPS
Audio
Multichannel surround sound output
Supports 48khz 16-bit audio
320 independent decompression channels
32 bit processing
256+ audio channels
Controller
Xbox 360 controllerThe Xbox 360 has the ability to support four wireless controllers. Additionally it can support three wired controllers through the use of its USB ports (two in front, one in back). The wired controller cords are nine feet in length and are breakaway similar to those used with the Xbox.
The controller for the Xbox 360 is a similar yet improved version of the Type-S gamepad for the original Xbox. The Xbox 360 controller, adds the new feature of the Xbox guide button, which has the appearance of the Xbox 360 emblem and is surrounded by a ring of light. Pressing the Xbox guide button will bring the Xbox 360 out of sleep mode or instantly bring up the "Xbox Guide". The ring of light lights up to designate what controller "port" the gamepad is currently using and which console (if more than one) the controller is connected to. The black and white buttons have been redesigned as shoulder buttons, now refered to as bumper buttons, located above the left and right triggers. The rear of the controller has been redesigned to include a new port where the player can connect a headset. The new port replaces the old multi-purpose connector on the front of the Xbox controller.
Xbox Guide
The Xbox Guide is a tabbed interface that contains several features such as:
Xbox Live
Marketplace
Favorites List
Custom Playlists
Friends Lists
and more
Miscellaneous
Support for WMV HD DVD Video, Standard DVD-video, DVD-Rom, DVD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-Rom, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG photo CD
All games support a 16:9 aspect ratio, and 720p and 1080i video modes
Standard definition and high definition video output supported
At least 4x Anti-Aliasing will be enabled at all times
Customizable face plates to change appearance
3 USB 2.0 ports
Support for 4 wireless controllers
Detachable 20GB hard drive
Wi-Fi ready (802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g), using an Xbox 360-specific or third-party wireless bridge accessory. Xbox 360 consoles will automatically detect and link with other Xbox 360 consoles within range.
Backward compatibility
According to J Allard during Microsoft's E3 Press Conference, the Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with original Xbox games with Xbox Live support, however, it is possible that it may not be fully backward-compatible with all Xbox games. J Allard stated, "Xbox 360 will be backward-compatible with top-selling Xbox games". The ambiguous statement has many media outlets believing that Microsoft may pick and choose certain games. Steve Ballmer in an interview with Engadget has stated that they will concentrate on making sure the best selling titles, such as Halo and Halo 2, are compatible, and by engineering. Michael Brundage a Microsoft software engineer, says in their site about the current challenge to develop an emulator, granting more reliable and solid compability.
