XBox2 general hardware layout

[Azimer]

I found an interesting GIF file about the XBox2's general hardware layout. It looks very standard, however. I noticed a 3 processors machine (expecting 64bit IBM PPCs) and a 500Mhz ATI chip. I guess the optimistic release date is xmas or early 2005. Now I have to ask. HOW MUCH IS THIS?!! A system with the specifications they are implying in their early drawing looks like overkill for a gaming console. Do they expect consumers to shell out $2,000 (USD) for their system? I also learned (rumored?) XBox2's specs will be released in June. We will see if they keep the 3 PPCs or not. I believe one of them will do just fine... unless they are hoping this machine will take over the standard PC. If so... go Microsoft. I am not very fond of the x86 architecture. Only Microsoft has the capital to get out of the x86 (dinosaur) age. x86 was designed to be memory efficient. It is no longer... and is no longer necessary Microsoft might win me over yet. irate: "argh!"

hmm... who am I selling out to today? hehe

 

[sytaylor]

All consoles loose money on the hardware, but not by that much. Who knows how much they will cost once mass produced.. I wouldn't expect it to be more than $500 USD at launch

 

[Azimer]

$500 would be a steal... granted we could use it for general purpose eventually

 

[sytaylor]

/me has no issue ripping microsoft off

Would be a plesant role reversal.

 

[Doomulation]

Ah, but even the ps2 was launched at $500 when it first came out. There ARE idiots who preorder the machines and they know this - hence the price. Not short after, they cut it by a deal. Good money making scheme.

Hmmmmmmmm... replacement for the PC? might be what we need, hehe. Although I wish it wasn't m$ who did it.

 

[Modem]

PC-killer is what they all first say when the consoles are first released. But then a month later, the PC always gets something 10X better than it. Though it will be quite interesting to see how this turns out. If it's any good, I may get one. ^_^
- Modem

 

[Clements]

Microsoft is going to fall flat on their faces with this one. That system is overkill and is going to be too expensive. If it's going to be $500 for a console with three 64-Bit processors and a 500MHz ATi chip, I might as well bin my £1000 PC right now.

 

[posty_2k3]

This is going to be one major ripoff for the price this will be. I mean, come on, 3 64bit PPC Processors, a 500mhz ATI. I mean, god damn, this thing is better than my around $800 PC (i bought the parts seperately) This thing is going to be about $1,500 at the least on its launch. Microsoft is making a bad decision on this in my opinion. It won't sell well if it is too pricey,

 

[sheik124]

they have the diagram at anandtech.com last time i went there if anyone wants it

 

[Modem]

Or, for a size of 25k, you can upload it, heh heh.

Think about it this way. It will still be a console. Though no doubt this'll be the first console that'll have (a lot of) patches for it's games coming in left and right via a hdd or something similar to MMORPG's on consoles, so that'll give them excuses to release unfinished POS games. Other than that, it would be a good alternative to a PC if you think about it. It'll be powerful as hell (expensive yes), but it'll always have the same hardware, so games will be able to look/run very well on it, and noone has to worry about any of the hardware changing. So you won't have to worry about spending a ton of money upgrading it a year later. You can wait 3 years if you want to upgrade to some new and snazzy console. I don't know, I'm just trying to look at it from a different point of view. Though you know if it'll be as expensive as it looks, it'll struggle, so it better have some great exclusive releases to stay afloat. Just my two cents.
- Modem

 

[pj64er]

Microsoft is going to fall flat on their faces with this one. That system is overkill and is going to be too expensive.

Thats what people said about the first Xbox (which WAS $400+). Look where they are now. And keep in mind the fact that nearly all consoles are sold at a deficit, as well as the fact that Microsoft dont mind large deficits on their products. Its been said that Microsoft is losing on everything they make except Windows and Office.


On the other hand, look at it this way. Do you guys remember the vague specs for PS3? The one with the many many processors going parallel? I dont know about you, but they sound like a good match...lets see what Nintendo pulls outta their arse for this one.

 

[Azimer]

I remember hearing Microsoft intending to use the XBox2 for more than just video games... as Sony is planning similar for PS3. The reason I called it a PC killer is not because of it's power but because of what's planned for it. :inlove:

 

[Modem]

If they change them to do anything more than videogames, like upgradeable, they will no longer *be* consoles. Man, technoligy sucks.
- Modem

 

[AlphaWolf]

If they change them to do anything more than videogames, like upgradeable, they will no longer *be* consoles.

Eh...not much of a loss there. IMO PC games are much better than console games by a long shot.

But anyways, that spec pic is a fake.

 

[Doomulation]

Bah. PC games are in no way better than console games. They're equal imo.
You can make the same game for PC as for consoles ('cept for the friggin' fps, but I don't care about them anyway ^_^). Just...this might be a new type of computer What if it gets upgradeable in the future, rooting out all the flaws in the computer architecture?

/me shivers at the thought

 

[Hacktarux]

I guess it'll probably one of those multicore chip ibm has advertising so hard during the last few years, that's much cheaper than 3 separate processors.

On the other hand 1Mb of cache is quite expensive to produce. For x86, when the cache is broken during production they simply do celeron or duron with the processor, but i don't see what they can do with their ppc chip...

 

[AlphaWolf]

Bah. PC games are in no way better than console games. They're equal imo.
You can make the same game for PC as for consoles ('cept for the friggin' fps, but I don't care about them anyway ^_^)

Actually I think the versatillity of FPS style play will cause more genres of games to move into that direction. I've already seen successful RTS and RPG implimentations into FPS. IMO, FPS is more of a style than a category because you can really play any kind of game in that environment.

I guess it'll probably one of those multicore chip ibm has advertising so hard during the last few years, that's much cheaper than 3 separate processors.

They have the right CPU, but a lot of the other stuff they are listing is made up, namely the ram and the hard drive. There is one exception with the CPU though, its a dual core processor, not to mention being RISC as well, so we aren't talking a cheezy pentium here. Hell, just one of these would make a pentium 4 at the same clock frequency look slow as hell. How microsoft can provide this at an affordable price is beyond me...maybe they have some kind of deal with IBM?

 

[Hacktarux]

Hell, just one of these would make a pentium 4 at the same clock frequency look slow as hell.

I'm not sure... From what i've seen, cpu intensive application on mac are running almost at the same speed as on a PC running at the same frequency. And we shouldn't forget that the pentium4 is designed so that increasing the frequency is easy enough to increase performance at the same rate but with a lower cost than designing a more optimized core. PCC and X86 can't really be compared at the same frequency, it should rather be compared at the same release date. Of course the multicore architechture have other advantages... It's really impressive to see how intel and amd have optimized the crappy x86 architecture.

I doubt the XBOX2 will be ready for this christmas, six months before a console release we would have heard about some game developpement i guess. It would mean hardware cost has time to decrease.

 

[Doomulation]

Actually I think the versatillity of FPS style play will cause more genres of games to move into that direction. I've already seen successful RTS and RPG implimentations into FPS. IMO, FPS is more of a style than a category because you can really play any kind of game in that environment.

I say to that, bah! I didn't really say it was a category, though... although it is mostly counted as one. But AFAIK, in the future, everything won't be fps, I've heard from somewhere... I don't really care for fps and I don't ever think I will... destroys the fun imo. Just look at metroid prime... much better had it been a platform.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I'm not sure... From what i've seen, cpu intensive application on mac are running almost at the same speed as on a PC running at the same frequency.

I wouldn't go by macintosh...IMO that platform is just as much of a marketing scham as the pentium 4.

Just look at metroid prime... much better had it been a platform.

Metroid prime was just designed by a company that has completely lost its touch and IMO will go the route of Sega soon. The FPS style play had nothing to do with it.