Something funny bout xbox 2, Dude your getting a Mac...? Options

[Knightsword]

Mac users read this and laugh

QUOTE

Microsoft Xbox To Use PowerPC Chip By Mark Hachman 11/3/2003 Microsoft's second-generation Xbox game console will contain a PowerPC microprocessor, sources confirmed Monday. In a statement issued by Microsoft on Monday, the company said that Microsoft had licensed "leading edge semiconductor processor technology" from IBM, to be used in the next-generation Xbox. Sources close to IBM subsequently identified the chip as a PowerPC, but declined to state which chip will be used in the console. ADVERTISEMENT The disclosure seems to indicate that Microsoft intends to break compatibility with the first-generation Xbox, which contained a 733-MHz Celeron designed by Intel. However, analysts said there were at least two means by which Microsoft could allow first-generation Xbox programs to run on the Xbox 2. Although rivals Sony Entertainment and Nintendo Ltd. have each shipped multiple generations of consoles, the Xbox represented Microsoft's first entry. Both the Xbox and Nintendo's Gamecube have fought viciously to achieve market share, although both have trailed the Sony PlayStation 2 by a wide margin. While both Sony and Nintendo have chosen relatively inexpensive, optimized RISC architectures to power their gaming machines, Microsoft's first-generation Xbox largely imitated the design of a PC. That strategy appears to have changed, analysts said, who added that Microsoft's U-turn came as a complete shock. In a statement Monday quoting Bernie Meyerson, an IBM fellow and chief technologist for IBM's Technology Group, Microsoft said that "the new Xbox technologies will be based on the latest in IBM's family of state-of-the-art processors." Scott Sykes, a spokesman for IBM Microelectronics, confirmed that an undisclosed IBM processor would power the Xbox. "It is the main CPU," Sykes said, when asked if the component would be a co-processor or other chip within the console. Sources said the chip powering the next Xbox will be a PowerPC, although they could not confirm which processor will power the device. With the deal, IBM now is involved in the design of microprocessors to be used in two different next-generation entertainment consoles, each designed by two different customers. IBM, Toshiba, and Sony have each contributed to the design of the "Cell" microprocessor, which Sony Entertainment has said will be used to develop future entertainment consoles, largely thought to include the PlayStation 3. Because of IBM's close ties with rival Sony, Microsoft probably is taking a hands-off approach to the Xbox deal, said Peter Glaskowsky, an analyst with In-Stat/MDR. "My guess is that IBM is coughing up something along the lines of one-directional transfer," he said. "Microsoft is telling IBM what will happen, and designing the machine (itself)." Analysts and industry sources speculated that the PowerPC could be anything from a G3 to a stripped-down G5. The only constraints? The Xbox will have to be sold for less than $300, and the processor must use a minimal heat sink to fit within the constraints of the chassis. In addition, the technology used must be seen as a leap over today's consoles: IBM has already shipped over 10 million PowerPCs to Nintendo Ltd. for use in the current GameCube, each a 485-MHz derivative of the G3 called the "Gekko". "The key thing here is what they haven't said," Glaskowsky said. "The CPU could well do the work, or in the Xbox2 it could literally be the co-processor or exist in a multiprocessing environment." To others, a commitment from IBM's processor team is a definite sign that IBM is in, and Intel is out—at least as a CPU designer. When asked if Microsoft might design in a PowerPC alongside an Intel chip, Dean McCarron, an analyst with Mercury Research, replied, "I don't know why they would do that." If Intel has indeed been ousted from the Xbox's architecture, the conventional wisdom holds that Microsoft may have to break software compatibility with its first-generation design – the rule, rather than the exception, in console design. Save for the PlayStation2, which allows playback of PlayStation 1 games, most consoles have required their developers to port their older titles to the new hardware. Microsoft already headed down this path by choosing ATI graphics chips for the second-generation Xbox, Glaskowsky pointed out. "If you've got code that's been written specifically for Nvidia, what are the odds it will run wrote code on an ATI graphics core?" he asked. That's not to say that including an X86 chip means older Xbox games won't run on the latest hardware. In February, Microsoft bought Virtual PC from Connectix, that allows X86-designed programs and games to run on Mac PowerPC-based hardware. In addition, Microsoft's Windows XP Embedded operating system also runs on the PowerPC, Glaskowsky pointed out. Either piece of software would still entice developers to write games for the Xbox that they could later port to the PC, he said.

[donkeybeatz]

LOL powerPC??
There better be an apple key on the controllers hekekeke.

--d-_-b

[Alisha]

lol i think gc uses power pc also

[Knightsword]

yea it does, but I'm waiting for the hacker who installed linux on the xbox to install an apple os onto the xbox 2, because I love irony

[DivA]

~the future of gaming.. =)

[Layrinn]

lol, that's a cute pic DivA.

You know, I could care less what powers the game systems these days. There used to be a time when I did care, but everything is so damn fast now that it really doesn't matter much. I'll go where ever the good games are. ^^

[Knightsword]

Where can I get one?

[Crushinator]

QUOTE (DivA @ Nov 27 2003, 12:44 PM)

~the future of gaming.. =)

I like how there's only one analog stick, and a sing, big, fat button.