XBox 360 Details

[Event]

I figured I could put all these details and pics in one place.

2 types of Xbox Live:
Xbox Live Silver (no subscription required)
Xbox Live Gold (subscription benefits)

Features for Gold service
* Also for Silver
# Also for Offline

- Seamless transition to Xbox Live account from Xbox to Xbox 360
- Access to MMOs (additional fees may apply) *
- Free Xbox Live weekends *
- Multiplayer online gameplay
- Avatar for gamer profile * #
- Motto for gamer profile * #
- Personalized look for Xbox System Guide * #
- Offline achievments * #
- Online achievements *
- Access to other players' Gamer cards via Live *
- Cumulative gamer score * #
- Location/language profile * #
- Reputation *
- Enahnced matchmaking using above
- Skill level matchmaking
- Gameplay style profile (casual, competitive, etc.)
- Recent players list *
- Free and premium download game content *
- Free and premium downloadable movies, music, tv *
- Downloadable demos/trailers *
- Microtransactions *
- Custom playlist in every game * #
- Play music from portable devices * #
- View images from digital camera * #
- Strem media from Windows XP * #
- Interactive screen savers * #
- Track info for CDs * #
- Communication with voice, video or text *

360 HW:
1. Support for DVD-video, DVD-Rom, DVD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-Rom, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 cd, JPEG photo CD
2. All games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-aliasing
3. Customizable face plates to change appearance
4. 3 USB 2.0 ports
5. Support for 4 wireless controllers
6. Detachable 20GB drive
7. Wi-Fi ready

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
- 3 symmetrical cores at 3.2 GHz each
- 2 hardware threads per core
- 1 VMX-128 vector unit per core
- 1 MB L2 cache

CPU Game Math Performance
- 9 billion dots per second

Custom ATI Graphics Processor
- 500 MNz
- 10 MB embedded DRAM
- 48-way parallel floating-point shader pipelines
- unified shader architecture

Memory
-512 MB GDDR3 RAM
- 700 MNz DDR

Memory Bandwidth
- 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
- 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
- 21.6 GB/s frontside bus

Audio
- Mulitchannel surround sond output
- Supports 48khz 16-bit audio
- 320 independent decompression channels
- 32 bit processing
- 256+ audio channels

 

[LaBounti]

Ah, when you know you wont go broke for underpricing this monster you can go all out and thats what the did. My hopes of a more powerfull PS3 have suddenly dropped and vanished.
$299 and I'm sold on day 1 or 3, i hate long lines for a new console(Dreamcast)

 

[Event]

Too bad I wont be able to buy any game consoles for a long while....

 

[Flerbizky]

That sounds nice.. I'll believe any specs I read as soon as someone reliable shows me pictures of an opened box.....

 

[Driftster]

Come on though, think about it, did you really have any doubts the X box wasn't going to be more powerful? It's Microsoft Vs Sony here. I know son'ys a credible electronics corp...but it isn't Microsoft

 

[danny16cs]

http://www.herowar.com/classic/recruit.phtml?id=25253

 

[LoudMusic]

Come on though, think about it, did you really have any doubts the X box wasn't going to be more powerful? It's Microsoft Vs Sony here. I know son'ys a credible electronics corp...but it isn't Microsoft

What exactly are you insinuating here? I can think of no reason why Microsoft should be able to build a faster computer than Sony. No reason at all. 99.9% of Microsoft is writing operating systems and business software for the X86 platform. Sony on the other hand actually makes hardware.

 

[Driftster]

You're right, but look at the organizations Microsoft ties into. I know all Micro does is develop OS's...But they develop OS's for the fastest PC's out there, which i'm sure has accumulated them a few "buisness" oriented favors if that's what you'd like to call the bonds formed with ATi, Mac..etc

Just think of it this way....
When you think microsoft what comes to mind?
computers...
profiteering
monopoly
etc etc

When you think sony what comes to mind?
music
crappy discman's
tommy matolla
And the worlds most femanine PC the Vaio

 

[LoudMusic]

When I think of Microsoft I think of unstable, unsecure, overpriced operating systems. When I think of Sony I think of quality consumer grade electronics - like big ass TVs and DVD players.

I guess everyone has their own perspective (:

Sony has all the Japanese manufacturers to deal with - Hitachi, NEC, Toshiba ... along with all the US manufacturers. Microsoft will pretty much stick to Intel, AMD, or IBM.

What I find really funny is that both Sony and Microsoft have gone to IBM this time around. Sony moving forward with a brand new chip, and Microsoft going with the tried and true Power series.

I still want the Linux community to make a console. Run it on an AMD with an NVidia processor. It'd be hella sweet.

 

[Driftster]

Well linux has taken over X box for most "literate" people. Not to the extent I'd like either, I personally would like to see Alienware do a console w/ linux. I mean their styling idea's seem to have console in mind, if they just shrunk it down a bit it'd probably be a nice thing to have..Or it could just be another Atari Jaguar...I don't know...

I personally will have my $ on the Xbox 360 to be the superior.

Sony will more than likely have more dev problems like they did with the Ps2...It'll have it's 4.# cell processor....Which will be fast, but do you really think it'll be as fast as 3 3.2's? I mean I don't doubt the cell's processing power, but the fact that the x box will be able to divide it's job 3 ways in theory would still be able to put out better #'s...you know what I mean?

 

[Robin]

specs sound good.......but it looks really ugly, just like the old xbox...

 

[discopotato]

yes but i also heard that the cell proccesor will have 10 threads, compared to x360's 6 threads. both very impressive. x360 is limited to under 9 gigs while ps3 will have nearly 50ish gigs with its BD's.

 

[Driftster]

Yeah..The Blue Ray tech is a plus..But how many games do you think will really utilize this kind of space? That would take years and years and YEARS of development. I mean look at how massive some of these other games like Matrix Online, and Morrowind are..and they don't even touch on the space a BD offers.....

A plus...but overkill

 

[Flerbizky]

Come on though, think about it, did you really have any doubts the X box wasn't going to be more powerful? It's Microsoft Vs Sony here. I know son'ys a credible electronics corp...but it isn't Microsoft

Say WHAT ?....

Cred given where Cred is due - and it isn't landing on M$' table that's fer sure... Sony has ALWAYS given me quality products - be it my first CD player (which still lives somewhere), my first walkman (which I still have though I don't use it)... M$ have, at best, given me a mediocre OS which unfortunately has been the only choice... Convince me to start buying a Game system they've made.. Schyearh right - as if...

Double - It's based on one of their OS's as well... Now THAT makes me want to buy one even less !....

 

[Driftster]

Well My X box's OS is extremely Stable...Much more stable than windows will ever be...and MS's o's arn't 100% bad..It's usually the upadates that ruin their reliability..their updates start conflicting with programs already integrated into your system.

X box's OS is great

DC had Microsoft windows CE...that was flawless

windows 95 was great for me...still has yet to give me problems on my other Pc...
The current one's windows XP does have some minor problems..Most stem from "windows service pack" Which I reformatted my HD and reinstalled windows..and it's fine once again....yeah..it has problems..Linux is the only OS that can truley be problem free just because the user can edit it to work with the programs he's running..It doesn't have a set standard....

And see...Sony wise...it's always sony's hardware that is the problem. On their CD walkmen...Their top portion brakes off to easily....Or their buttons stop working....or their little latch that keeps the tray closed..won't keep it closed anymore...Or the laser on the Ps2...or the tray on the Ps2...or the spinning speed not compensating for blue disks on the ps2


It's hardware problems...

 

[Mango.]

The system doesn't look too ugly this time around but those controllers look horrible

As great as the specs sound I don't think I'll even consider getting one, probably just gonna be another HaloBox (well Forza looks good too). Sony and Nintendo is enough for me.

 

[Flerbizky]

Well My X box's OS is extremely Stable...Much more stable than windows will ever be...

And still - The Xbox OS is nothing but a W2K core without the extras....

 

[Driftster]

Well like I said..It's the EXTRA's that cause problems. The things that cause problems in OS's are the curveballs it never intended on happening that it doesn't know how to deal with..
But with games and files that were designed AROUND a console..instead of a computer designed around gaming..(you know what I'm trying to say)
you eleviate that compatability problem..

 

[LoudMusic]

Eh, I'll eventually own one of each. The hardware is pretty cheap - why not? (:

I think MS has this next XBox close to right, according to the limited specs above. Though there are several things I would change. My full list ...

Single Processor - AMD
Dedicated Video - NVidia
Dedicated Sound - Creative
Six USB 2.0 ports - Adaptec
10/100 Ethernet - Intel
802.11G - Intel
Bluetooth - (no idea ...)
DVD-+RW - Plextor
300GB SATA Hard drive - Maxtor

I want it to be an eight inch cube on a one inch tall, six inch square pedistol, made of aluminum (surface finishes would vary). I want the pedistol to be the air intake on the front and exhaust on the back. I want a six inch by 3 inch, one inch deep recess on the back for A/V, power, ethernet, and USB ports, along with BNC connectors for WiFi and Bluetooth antenna extensions.

Controllers would be sold in both USB and Bluetooth models. The console operating system would support keyboard / mouse / printer / USB storage device / webcam. Communicator headset would be Bluetooth.

The DVD drive would be slot loading on the front, acompanied only by a single large lighted button in the front center that was either off (for Off), yellow (for booting), green (for functioning), or red (for critical error).

Games could be bought on physical media (CD / DVD), or downloaded from the internet. All games would be copied to the hard drive. Games bought on disk would require the disk to launch, then read from the hard drive. Games bought over the internet would require an internet connection to launch.

It would have an online service similar to XBox Live!, but include server backups of your in-game saves, etc, in addition to various other services like forums tied to online account, email, web space, web accessible database driven by the console manufacturer (not the game developer).

The audio / video connectors would include DVI, RCA, S-Video, optical and coaxial digital audio, and composite, and they would all be on the back of the console, not in a breakout cable.

I would like the power supply to be internal, but I don't think that's possible, so it would be in the powercord.

 

[Flerbizky]

I'm mostly wondering why you'd like Acraptec to power the USB2.0 ports ?...

Why not keep everything aside from the CPU and Memory access controller in one single chip ?...

 

[Driftster]

Because it's not as fast....If it's all got separate chips it works faster..CPU has to do less work.. The more specific you can make each device..the less work the CPU has to do..which means it has MORE room to do the easy tasks....result...faster.

 

[Flerbizky]

Because it's not as fast....If it's all got separate chips it works faster..CPU has to do less work.. The more specific you can make each device..the less work the CPU has to do..which means it has MORE room to do the easy tasks....result...faster.

Are you for real ?...

If what you say are chosen as the path of rightness, then each and every component will have to access the CPU one at a time... If everything is integrated in one single chip (USB, NIC, etc.) only ONE thing has to use the signal path...

A multiple chip solution is not only slower, it's also more expensive and a lot more complicated to make.... Makes sense in an M$ sorta way I guess....

 

[livemusic]

And see...Sony wise...it's always sony's hardware that is the problem. On their CD walkmen...Their top portion brakes off to easily....Or their buttons stop working....or their little latch that keeps the tray closed..won't keep it closed anymore...Or the laser on the Ps2...or the tray on the Ps2...or the spinning speed not compensating for blue disks on the ps2


It's hardware problems...

I have a Sony´s CD Walkman for more than 4 years now, and it never had any problems. What I specially like are the rechargable batteries life. They´re the same that came with the product, and I can listen to 10 + cds without having to recharge them.

 

[Carl.]

I think this war won't be won over who gets the most performing hardware, both platform will be most likely be very impressive, but rather on who brings more good game developers on its platform. MS has an head start here, with XBox live and easier portability to PC gaming. I really wouldn't want to have MS as a competitor at this. MS looks very eager to do exactly what Sony has done to Sega and Nintendo a few years ago, and I hope Sony will be able to keep up.

 

[LaBounti]

Now this is impressive but how would this convert into a gaming usageSDTV x48

Thats 1920x1080 x 48, the future of televison is looking clear but what is it going to do for PS3?

That was an 8 spe demo but the chip can be scaled to 16. So the 3x 3.2ghz VS 1 4ghz+ makes more sence. I think IBM told M$ they need 3 chips to hang with 1 Cell since they co developed the Cell processor.

"Cell can integrate between four and 16 processor cores into a single chip, according to reports. Low-end versions with four cores are expected to appear in set-top boxes and other embedded applications. At the high end, Cell chips should be capable of more than a trillion floating point calculations per second, or about 100 times more than a Pentium IV running at 2.4Ghz.

Mumbo jumbo but E3 should give some real numbers. All sony needs to do is match X360s ram.

 

[Nasadus]

Guys,if you are thinking that those specs will outdo the Cell processor and the PS3,you are mistaken.I have had a big discussion on another forum with several other people regarding PC's,Cell and the next-gen consoles.They were very much in doubt about the capabillities of the Cell processor.I posted several links wich contained data from the Cell patent and info from ISSCC 2005.Here are a few snippets from that article.

Each Cell contains 8 APUs(Attached Processor Units). An APU is a self contained vector processor which acts independently from the others. They contain 128 X 128 bit registers, there are also 4 floating point units capable of 32 GigaFlops and 4 Integer units capable of 32 GOPS (Billions of Operations per Second).

If over clocked sufficiently (over 3.0GHz) and using some very optimised code (SSE assembly), 5 dual core Opterons directly connected via HyperTransport should be able to achieve a similar level of performance in stream processing as a single Cell. The PlayStation 3 is expected to have have 4 Cells.

Cell will accelerate many commonly used applications by ludicrous proportions compared to PCs. Intel could put 10 cores on a chip and they'll match neither it's performance or price. The APUs are dedicated vector processors, x86 are not. The x86 cores will no doubt include the SSE vector units but these are no match for even a single APU.

Even with a single Cell it will outgun top end multiprocessor PCs many times over. That's gotta hurt, and it will hurt, Cell is going to effectively make traditional general purpose microprocessors obsolete.

You could argue gamers will still drive PC performance up but Sony could always pull a fast one and produce a PS3 on a card for the PC. Since it would not depend on the PC's computational or memory resources it's irrelevant how weak or strong they are. Sony could produce a card which turns even the lowest performance PC into a high end gaming machine. If such a product is sold in large numbers studios developing for PS3 already may decide they not need to develop a separate version for the PC, the resulting effect on the PC games market could be catastrophic.

The aggressiveness in the design of the Cell architecture means that it is going to be very, very difficult to produce a comparably performing part. x86 has no hope of getting there, they ultimately need to duplicate the Cell design in order to match it. GPUs will also have a hard time, they are currently at a 10 fold clock speed disadvantage, generate large amounts of heat and the highest performance parts are made in tiny numbers compared to what cell will be made. It will require a complete rethink of the GPUs design in order to get even close to the Cell's clock rate.

This is a 9 core processor, one of these cores is something similar to a PowerPC G5 and acts as a controller. The remaining 8 cores are called APUs and these are very high performance vector processors. Each APU contains it's own block of high speed RAM and is capable of 32 GigaFlops (32bit). The APUs are independent processors and can act alone or can be set up to process a stream of data with different APUs working on different stages. This ability to act as a "stream processor" gives access to the full processing power of a Cell which is more than 10 times higher than even the fastest desktop processors.

In addition to the raw processing power the Cell includes a high performance multi-channel memory subsystem and a number of high speed interconnects for connecting to other Cells or I/O devices.

The first Cell based desktop computer will be the fastest desktop computer in the industry by a very large margin. Even high end multi-core x86s will not get close. Companies who produce microprocessors or DSPs are going to have a very hard time fighting the power a Cell will deliver. We have never seen a leap in performance like this before and I don't expect we'll ever see one again, It'll send shock-waves through the entire industry and we'll see big changes as a result.
Cell is going to turn the industry upside down, nobody has ever produced such a leap in performance in one go and certainly not at a low price.

There,i hope that was confusing.As you can see,the PS3 is going to be very powerfull. If Sony indeed decide to use 4 Cell's in one PS3 it will be more than 5 times more powerfull that the X-Box 360.That's a huge marging.

Anyway,sorry for bring this off-topic.I just wanted to correct any misinterpetations.

 

[LaBounti]

As I said, all sony needs to do is match the ram. Developers begged for more ram in the PSP and it went from 12 to 32.

 

[LoudMusic]

Are you for real ?...

If what you say are chosen as the path of rightness, then each and every component will have to access the CPU one at a time... If everything is integrated in one single chip (USB, NIC, etc.) only ONE thing has to use the signal path...

A multiple chip solution is not only slower, it's also more expensive and a lot more complicated to make.... Makes sense in an M$ sorta way I guess....

Whoa whoa whoa! Multi-chip is slower? You could not be further from the truth.

Think of it like this - one really fast man doing all the work, or several slower men each specifically trained to do their certain task and report back to the manager.

A computer where everything is on the motherboard is going to be much slower than one with everything devided out to its own chip. Every time.

 

[iceburns288]

I don't think specs will matter so much, the Xbox has vastly better specs and power than the PS2 but look at its market share. MS has its foot in the door this time and that's all it needs...

 

[LoudMusic]

I don't think specs will matter so much, the Xbox has vastly better specs and power than the PS2 but look at its market share. MS has its foot in the door this time and that's all it needs...

So what are you saying? I'm confused. Nearly as I can tell, you're arguing against yourself.