M$ has released game footage and specs for their new machine. I am thoroughly impressed.
Here are the specs as of now.
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
Ram
- 512 MB of 700 MHz GDDR3 RAM
- Unified memory architecture
>
I/O
- Support for up to four wireless game controllers
- Three USB 2.0 ports
- Two memory unit slots
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
(Yes you can hook up your IPOD and make play lists on your XBOX)
HD Support
- All games supported at 16:9, 720p, and 1080i, anti-aliasing
- Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported
Audio
- Multi-channel surround sound output
- Supports 48 KHz 16-bit audio
- 320 independent decompression channels
- 32-bit audio processing
- Over 256 audio channels
I left the graphics chip for last since there is so much debate concerning the GPU. Their website actually states wrong figures concerning the chip. ATI is making the chip for M$, and it is a doozy. It has broken new ground and the tech for this card will not be released for PC until the end of 2006 or 2007. It has added a little 10MB EDRAM that sits right next to the GPU. It will use this little bit of space for most calculations. The effective bandwidth between the the GPU and the EDRAM is what is exciting. It is 256 GB/s (Yes Gigabytes per sec). This solves the bottlenecks that all graphics cards have right now. It is patented and not available or will ever be available to PC's. It was designed for 1280*1024*32 with 4x FSAA. For those who know this number it should excite you. The card can do 2X and 4x anti-aliasing for "free" because of this 10MB EDRAM. This is going to make HD gaming amazing.
I have trolled geeky 3d card forums studying about the new technology and everyone is in agreement; it is amazing.
When XBOX 1 released the parts were not that great. The GPU was a little exciting becauseit had a unified shading architect which allowed the shadows to be done hardware and not software. But the CPU was a 733 MHz processor; And the RAM was sup bar. At the time the best computer was a 1.4 Pentium 3 and a Geforce card that was better then XBOX GPU. But now is a much different story. The firstmulti core CPU for the desktop is not going to be out until the end of the year and they only handle on thread at a time. Realistically this computer can't be built until the middle of 2007 or beginning of 2008. The talks of triple core CPU's is just now starting in the community. and as for the RAM on the XBOX 360, it is the same RAM that graphics cards use. It is the fastest. This will never happen on a PC (which is good is most cases). And the GPU is a marvel. It is supposed to be (figures are still coming out about it) 4 times more powerful then the next ATI card.
All these numbers are theoretical, but effective numbers are starting to surface.
Tomorrow PS3.
The amazing Cell processor, but the way overhyped GPU (The 360's GPU IS more powerful, the media is just going to have to catch up)
Here is some great debate on the GPU
Thread 1
Thread 2
Thread 3
One Pic to get you thinking on the Next Gen. This is NOT CGI, It is running on a Xbox 360 alphp dev kit (which is a dual processor G5 with a x850xt and 512 megs of DDR. 30% of the XBOX 360) in game.
