Oblivion Posted April 26, 2004 Share Posted April 26, 2004 Sources Set the Announcement Date for New Microsoft?s Consoleb> A visitor of aChinese BBS revealed information that, he thinks, mirrors some architecture peculiarities of the Microsoft?s Xbox 2 console in addition to the date when the world?s largest software maker is expected to release the official details of the console. Microsoft is expected to formally announce the Xbox 2 (the ?Xenon?) on the 2nd of June 2004. The firm may adjust some parameters but will not change the overall structure of the console, the China-based web-site GZeasy.com believes. Microsoft will use IBM?s POWER 64-bit processors in the Xbox 2. The 65nm chips were reportedly taped-out recently and are now evaluated by engineers at Microsoft and IBM, though, the architecture of those microprocessors still remains to be investigated. As everybody knows, there is a lot going on with multi-core, multi-threaded designs at IBM. Apparently, Microsoft also wants to jump on that bandwagon, some sources indicate. The Redmond, Washington-based firm wants to incorporate IBM?s POWER 976 architecture into the CPUs for Xbox 2 console to allow truly high-performance processing. POWER 976 is expected to be a dual-core processor able to handle two threads at once. What may seem a pretty hard to believe is that Microsoft wants more than 1 such chip to power its forthcoming console, according to the scheme published there are three of such chips. The whole Xbox 2 CPU system will be capable of processing a number of threads simultaneously; because of its RISC nature, the new architecture is a big-endian system, a term that describes the order in which a sequence of bytes are stored in computer memory. Traditional x86 architectures use the little-endian approach, it was initially noted. The graphics processor of the Xbox 2 is to be developed by ATI Technologies, the I/O controller is to be developed by Silicon Integration Systems Corporation. X-Bit Labs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingbob Posted April 26, 2004 Share Posted April 26, 2004 Holy shiznat! Sounds good! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danrarbc Posted April 26, 2004 Share Posted April 26, 2004 (edited) I doubt MS will use seperate north and south bridges. I expect them to integrate them into one since they want to cut costs this time. To me the diagram just seems to take what we already know and also make some crazy guesses on the things we don't know. 3 CPUs, not 2 or 4? Edited April 26, 2004 by Danrarbc641 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblivion Posted April 26, 2004 Author Share Posted April 26, 2004 That Took Me By Surprise As Well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Dorr Veteran Posted April 26, 2004 Veteran Share Posted April 26, 2004 Ok, that diagram is taken from some random forum. Seems kind of suspect to me, but I've been wrong about such things in the past. So, who knows... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BroChaos Veteran Posted April 26, 2004 Veteran Share Posted April 26, 2004 is this info really credible.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblivion Posted April 26, 2004 Author Share Posted April 26, 2004 I Think X-Bit Labs Usually Has Credible News & Reviews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Veteran Posted April 26, 2004 Veteran Share Posted April 26, 2004 What's With The Capitalizing Of Every Word? :huh: It's Kinda Hard To Read :wacko: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicane-UK Veteran Posted April 26, 2004 Veteran Share Posted April 26, 2004 Wow.. well the Xbox didn't exactly have a long lifespan did it if they are planning on making the Xbox2 so soon?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danrarbc Posted April 26, 2004 Share Posted April 26, 2004 Wow.. well the Xbox didn't exactly have a long lifespan did it if they are planning on making the Xbox2 so soon?! Console makers plan years in advance. We know in Nintendo's case that immediately after the N64 released they were already thinking about what they wanted their next console to do, Sony worked almost that long on the PS2 - maybe a year or two less than Nintendo. The Xbox was a black sheep with it's 2-3 year development. Microsoft is still at least a year away from releasing it (2005 at the earliest), there's nothing special about having some info now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BTallack Posted April 26, 2004 Share Posted April 26, 2004 I don't consider "A visitor of aChinese BBS" to be considered a reliable source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madgut Posted April 27, 2004 Share Posted April 27, 2004 Xenon?? AIayayayayayya!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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